August, 1000 ] 1G9 



the monastery of Marsaba in the desert, produced an entirely new set 

 of interesting captures, among them a magnificent Eu7nenes, which I 

 think is new. 



April 11th. We drove to Jericho— not the site of the original 

 city, but the modern village a few miles away from it — passing the 

 half-way-house called the " Khan of the Good Samaritan." There is 

 not, and perhaps never was, any other house on the road likely to 

 have received the wounded traveller and his "neighbour." In the 

 courtyard may still be seen a fragment of Roman pavement which 

 may be a relic of the original building, especially as it is not pointed 

 out to strangers, nor ticketed like the sham religious antiquities which 

 so disgust one in Jerusalem. 



During the halt here I rambled out for a few minutes and dis- 

 covered a new Ammohates, and a specimen — I believe the second 

 that has been recorded -of the splendid Chri/sis Kohlii, Mocs. And 

 then returning to the courtyard for a last look at the pavement I met 

 and secured the only specimen I have ever found of the great Spliex 

 hirtus, Kohl, a black monster with brilliant yellow wings. 



In the descent towards Jericho we had finally taken leave of 

 winter, and leapt as it were into summer at a bound. The great 

 depression in which lies the Dead Sea, many hundred feet below the 

 level of the Mediterranean bed, has, as is well known, a climate, a 

 flora, and a fauna quite unlike that of the rest of Palestine. Just as 

 many elevated districts are more or less "arctic" in these respects, so 

 this absolutely unique depression tends to a "tropical " character. The 

 heat at Jericho itself is tremendous, reminding one of Egypt during 

 the " Khamsin," and one is truly thankful for a delightful cool stream 

 which rushes through the village, with sheltered places among the 

 rocks where one can bathe in comfort and privacy. 



April llth-]7th. All this week we remained at Jericho. On the 

 14th we visited the Dead Sea and the Jordan. Entomologically the 

 former produced only masses of dead locusts, but at the Jordan I 

 found in abundance both sexes of Ceratina parvula, Smith, the ^ 

 having been previously unknown. It is the smallest bee I ever saw. 

 Though my net was an extremely fine one, the little wretches wriggled 

 through its meshes with ease; but they were luckily so abundant that 

 I secured a tolerable series notwithstanding. At the same place I had 

 the good luck to discover both sexes of two other species of Ceratina, 

 of which the ^ ^ only had been known before, viz., mandihularis, 

 Eriese, and hispinosa, Handlirsch. 



Throughout our stay at Jericho we were continually turning up 



