NOTES ON COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 147 



ovum, i.e., at the point furthest away from the point of attachment"''. 

 Around the micropyle is a series of thirteen or fourteen cells resembling 

 the petals of a flower. The micropyle itself is a depression with 

 punctuations. These petal-like cells appear darker green than the 

 rest of the cells, due to their being slightly raised and thus having a 

 dark side upon the side opposite to the source of light. The micropyle, 

 with these cells, curiously resembles a sunflower, of which the micro- 

 pyle with its depressions are the tubular flowers, and the petal-like 

 cells the ligulate ones. The mesh structure extends three times the 

 breadth of the sunflower-form down the side of the qq^ and thence, 

 as stated above, degenerates. 



In conclusion, I made a curious observation upon the imago. If 

 irritated or alarmed, it opens its Avings almost to their full extent and 

 raises them at an angle of about fifteen degrees to the horizontal 

 plane. It then curves its body, or rather its abdomen, almost at 

 right angles to the thorax, and gives a series of audible taps upon the 

 base of whatever it is confined in. 



When indulging in this habit the general appearance reminded me 

 strongly of that of a Bombiis, Avhich has been intoxicated, on a flower. 

 As these observations were made upon females, I thought perhaps the 

 motions were in some manner connected with sexual impulses. 



Notes on Collecting in Egypt, 1903 and 1904. 



By PHILIP P. GRAVES. 

 I passed the year 1903 at Cairo, with the exception of a couple of 

 months at Aboukir on the north coast of the Delta, and was able to 

 make numerous outings, which, however, brought in, as a rule, very 

 small bags. The poverty of the country in lepidoptera was very 

 marked. Close cultivation, irrigation, and the utterly desert nature 

 of unirrigated tracts, combine with the great physical uniformity of 

 Egypt, to make the number of species that a collector can hope to take 

 very small. In January and February, 1908, the weather was cold and 

 windy. Worn Ikinais cJirysippas, Pyrainei^ cardin and Lompides hucticus 

 w^ere the only common species; AntJiocharis helemia occurred in culti- 

 vated land in small numbers, and was fond of bean-flowers, on which it 

 rested with wings half spread and drooping, being then very difficult to 

 distinguish. Piens rapae occnvved, and I took a fine 2 AntJiocharis helia at 

 Wadi Hof, in the Arabian Desert, behind Helonan. In March and April 

 matters improved greatly. I collected vigorously at Ezbet el Nakhle 

 and Marg, some ten miles northeast of Cairo, in spots where the 

 cultivation was less intense than usual. I first took Poh/oimiuitus 

 li/diiion on March 8th, several specimens having the underside of the 

 hindwings unspotted, Colias eduaa and ab. 2 lielice appeared early in 

 the month in large numbers, and Pieris ropae, much powdered with 

 black on the underside of the hindwings, was also abundant. 



* This is so unusual in a Sphingid that the observation wants confirming in 

 as many cases as possible to show that it was not accidental in this instance. No 

 hint of such a remarkable circumstance is given in the descriptions by Bacot and 

 Weismann (see Nat. Histonj of the BritUh Lepidoptera, iv., p. 213), and we have 

 never examined an example that has not had the micropyle placed at one end in 

 true Sphingid fashion. We suspect Mr. Harrison has described the slight depres- 

 sion occurring usually on the upper surface of the egg of this species as the 

 micropyle. — Ed. 



