NOTES ON COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 149 



phrastiis in some numbers, the larvae feeding on " nabb " [Zizyplina 

 vulj/aria), and on the sandhills found very small forms of L. telicanns 

 and P. lysi)iinn. One damaged Hippotion celerio, a few Helinthu, sp. 

 (larva feeds on tomato), and numerous Plusia (jminna, Prodenia 

 littoralis, Ci/raeda dentalis and Sterrha sacroria, with a solitary Gram- 

 vwdea iieouietrica (?) were my only other catches. In the first week of 

 May I paid a visit to the Margut Steppe, where I ssbw Lainpidesboeticns and 

 Pyraiiieiscardid, the latter in numbers, with plenty of Sesia stellataruinand 

 Carcharodm lavaterae, and saw a " blue " which I believe to have been 

 Poli/otiiiiiatiin var. abencerrai/iis, for /'. lysimun, according to Mr. 

 Marsden, who is well informed about the Alexandrian lepidoptera, 

 does not occur there. The grass land was all burnt by the heat, but a 

 good deal of vegetation — Phlomis, thistle, basil, etc. — flourished in the 

 dry rain channels. 



On my return to Cairo I at once visited the Barrage Gardens, 

 twelve miles north of the city, and there, in the first week of August, 

 on a very hot afternoon, I saw a 3" Hypolimnas misippus, alas ! quite 

 uncatchable, flying like a huge Liiitenitis Camilla over the shrubs and 

 low trees. Danais cliriisippua. abounded, and with them were the usual 

 blues — L. telicanns, 1j. hoeticm, and /'. ///.s//»(;», with a few Paniara ma- 

 thias. I also visited my old hunting-ground at Ezbet el Nakhle, and took 

 a solitary battered 5 of Pontia daplidice there, the only one I have 

 taken in Egypt. I also took worn ? s of Hypolycaena livia flying 

 along an acacia hedge, but no (? s of this fine Lycaenid appeared till 

 the second week in September, when they swarmed both there, at 

 Marg, and in the Ezbehiah Gardens at Cairo. This insect almost 

 always flies high round the tops of hedges and low trees. I have only 

 twice seen it on flowers near the ground, and owing to its rapid flight 

 and the thorns of the "sunt" and "fitneh" acacias, which it frequents, 

 it is very difficult to take in good condition. Females persisted till 

 November 9th, laying their eggs on the terminal buds of "fitneh," 

 from which the green seed-pods are produced in winter and spring, and 

 also on the pods themselves. I took odd specimens of Chilades trochilus 

 in several localities near Cairo ; numerous Poli/onniiatiis lysiinon, the $ s 

 taken in October and on to December, as in spring, being largely suffused 

 with blue, and a species of Parnara, which I cannot determine, apparently 

 not wathias, which was common at the same time, and certainly not 

 nostradaiiitis, which abounded in September and October, in partly 

 cultivated ground where clover and vetches were planted. 



Meyasonia {Tarayama) acaciae and Kariaa insulana appeared in 

 September, and in October I took some yellow aberrations of the last 

 named species in the desert ravines near Helonan, where, in spite of 

 burnt vegetation and blistering heat, Pontia ylaucononie was flying 

 between October 10th and 15th. But to catch ylauconoine is no 

 easy matter. It is the fastest flying butterfly I know, and to follow 

 it with the thermometer at 100° F., through rock and thorn 

 scrub, demands exceptional sprinting powers and a perfect wind. I 

 only took four specimens, all J s, and diflering very little from one 

 another in facies or size. 



Anthocharis heleniia, ^ s only, appeared towards the end of November, 

 and, though not common, was seen at several localities near Marg and 

 Ezbet el Nakhle till the end of the year. An attempt to secure a 

 Syiichthiis — a specimen of which I had seen in a small collection labelled 



