216 [September, 1904. 



Limoniastrum ai'e apparently very stiff and dry ; pressing them in the 

 hand, one might suppose they contained little or no moisture. The 

 stems are hard and woody, nor does the plant appear to be one that 

 is likely to be nutritive or succulent, yet a small piece shut in a well- 

 ventilated bottle such as I generally use for breeding purposes will 

 quickly give off: moisture ; and it is almost impossible, except by 

 taking out the leaves and thoroughly drying the bottle every day, to 

 keep larvae from being soaked by the water which accumulates on the 

 sides. Consequently, we find a great number of species chosing this 

 as their food. [Single species of Agdistis, Aristotelia, Hypocecis, u.g., 

 Apotistatus, n.g., Trifurcula, and a Phycid recognised and bred ; one 

 A^yonoea, n.g., one Gelecliia, one Aristotelia taken exclusively on this 

 plant and undoubtedly attached to it, and another larva, at present un- 

 recognised, closely imitating the leaf in its shape and colouring which 

 was found in both seasons but not reared ; moreover, the Pterophorid 

 mentioned by Meyrick under the name of siceliota, Z., constantly 

 dislodged from this shrub, must in the absence of any species of Cistus 

 be at least sti'ongly suspected to feed upon it. 



The genus Coleophora is well represented ; up to the present I 

 have succeeded in breeding nineteen species, taking several others on 

 wing, and fi.ndiug cases of two or three additional species not at the 

 present identified. 



GelechiadcE are very numerous, the sucedella group predominating ; 

 they sw-arm at lamp-light and arround the crassulaceous plants near 

 Hammam-es-Salahin. The genus Scythris and its allies seems to be 

 also largely represented. There is a notable absence of Tortricidce,at 

 least up to the end of May, but perhaps these may prove to be more 

 abundant during the following months. 



At El-Kantara, and evidently more so at Batna, Lambessa, El- 

 Guerrah, and Constautine, and from thence to the coast, the fauna 

 and flora present a more European character, but at Biskra almost 

 every species differs in some recognisable degree from its European 

 congeners, and although assuming much the same pattern and colouring 

 as some already known form, seems to be so uniformly distinguishable 

 as to constitute something more than a mere topomorphic variety. 

 Where it is only a question of size, as among plants in Arundo 

 phragmites, mentioned above, one cannot regard the variation as of 

 special value ; but when either with or without increase of size one 

 finds persistent and uniform differences, however slight, it seems well 

 to record them by separate names. 



