88 THE entomologist's record. 



time as being "perhaps in association ; " a red onisciform insect as 

 large as a hazel nut and a tiny "fly" with a very long tail of many 

 fine waxy bristles, the whole looking like a bunch of spun glass. The 

 " fly " was running round the large insect with great rapidity, jumping 

 into the air, and altogether appearing as the most nervous, jerky, 

 excitable creature imaginable. These two insects are the ? and ^ of 

 a Coccid, of which Prof. Newstead says : " The Coccid (El Kantara) is 

 apparently Margarodes mediterranens, Silvestri. I should point out, 

 however, that there are a few minor morphological characters which do 

 not fit in with Silvestri's diagnosis, but they do not seem to me to be 

 sufficiently important to warrant the creation of a new species." 

 The (? s of Coccids are very rare ; I had the good fortune to find 

 a second S in my net on the same day as that on which I captured 

 the pair. 



Turning stones in the desert is not a very profitable task. There 

 are so many stones that there is not much competition for any particular 

 eligible plot. Nevertheless animals were to be found in these places, 

 though generally only Scorpions or Machiliids. Among the insects which 

 concern us here, I may mention scattered colonies of a White Ant, 

 Hodotennes ochraceiis, Burm. (determined by Prof. Nils Holmgren) and 

 Einhia nianretanica. These last insects were very rare. I found one 

 colony of twenty under a stone in a fairly green oued, among some 

 tamarisk bushes. In nature the tubes ramify dichotomously ; regular 

 passages lead out from under the stone into the dead sticks and grass 

 outside. A few tunnels also enter the earth for a short distance. 

 The colony has a "nest" in the centre of its webs, and to this the 

 individuals retreat when disturbed'''. All the members of a colony 

 appear to move together, and in the same direction, consequently they 

 are always found congregated in one part of their web, all facing in the 

 same way. In captivity the animals soon filled the tube in which 

 they were kept with an irregular mass of silken tunnels running in 

 all directions. They always regard one part of their domicile as home, 

 and here they make a nest where all roads meet, and where the walls 

 are distinctly thicker than elsewhere. The insects are highly skoto- 

 tropic. In a glass tube they may be observed spinning galleries of 

 silk from the glands in their anterior legs. The legs in question are 

 moved about independently with a vague waving motion. Mr. C. B. 

 AVilliams has bred an adult 3 from my larva3, thus setting the 

 determination beyond a doubt. His larvae were kept Avarm and damp, 

 and his ^ emerged about August 12th. My larvae, kept dry and in a 

 living room, are still alive (December 26th, 1918). Their meta- 

 morphosis is not yet complete. 



During my return journey across the Mediterranean many of my 

 specimens were partially devoured by a small red ant, Mononwriuin 

 pharaonis, which emerged in large numbers from a den of iniquity 

 behind the steam-pipes in my cabin. 



A few notes on the rest attitudes of Pierine butterflies had perhaps 

 better appear together. The attitudes are all described from specimens 

 in a state of repose in glass-bottomed boxes. It is well-nigh impossible 

 to observe these things in the field during a flying visit. Dr. Longstaft'* 



* Cf. Imms, Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., •2nd. Ser., Zoology, vol. xi., pt. 12, 

 p. 184, et seq. 



* " Butterfly Hunting in Many Lands," p. 162, pi. 5, fig. 10. 



