161 [July. 



AN EXCURSION TO EGYPT, PALESTINE, ASIA MINOR, &c., 

 IN SEARCH OF ACULEATE HYMENOPTERA. 



EY THE EEV. F. D. MORICE, M.A., P.E.S. 



lu the spring of last year (1899) I had the good fortune to make 

 one of a travelling party of insect-hunters conducted by the famous 

 Thuringian naturalist, Dr. Otto Schmiedeknecht. In eighty days we 

 travelled only too rapidly over many hundred miles of sea and land, 

 from one interesting country to another — Egypt, Palestine, Syria, 

 Asia Minor, and so back by Constantinople to Vienna. There our 

 party dispersed, and I remained to work out my captures with the 

 help of Herr Kohl and the splendid collections and library of the 

 Hof- Museum. 



From most points of view, and especially the entomological, our 

 tour was a decided success. Yet there were certain drawbacks- 

 Several localities from which much had been expected proved more or 

 less disappointing. The weather was not always propitious — we 

 started, I think, rather too early in the year. And visiting such a 

 succession of new places, we naturally lost some time in casting about 

 vaguely to discover the richest hunting grounds, and had hardly learnt 

 our way about one district before we had to quit it for another, and 

 begin over again. Still, on the whole, I for one was more than 

 satisfied with my journey. Quite apart from entomology it was full 

 of ever-changing delight and interest, and it will be long before I 

 have exhausted the materials for contemplation and study which I 

 have brought home in four large " Doppel-kasten," packed choke-full 

 with Aculeates, Saw-flies and Chrysids. 



I may say here that these materials are in truly splendid condi- 

 tion, thanks mainly to my friend Herr Friese, who persuaded me to 

 abandon cyanide and use only "pure sulphuric ether without alcohol." 

 Hymenoptera so killed not only preserve absolutely their natural 

 colours, even those delicate yellows which cyanide and ammonia 

 almost always turn to brown or red, but die in natural positions — not 

 cramped and distorted like the victims of the other methods — and 

 are even so obliging usually as to open their mandibles and extend 

 the whole cibarial apparatus so that it can be examined without 

 any " preparation " of the specimen. These advantages and the 

 perfect cleanness of specimens killed by ether seem to me ranch 

 more than enough to repay the slight extra trouble and expense 

 involved in using it. The one objection to ether is its rapid evapora- 

 tion, but this can be met by carrying a small phial in the waistcoat 

 pocket, from which a few fresh drops can be supplied to the collecting 



