NOTES ON COLLECTING. 211 



any collecting this year till the last week in April, when I visited 

 the Wadi Rished to look for the blue which I call Plebeius allardii, 

 Obth., but which, judging by specimens of that insect in the British 

 Museum collection, is intermediate between that species and loewii. 

 On arriving at the Wadi I found a terrific wind blowing, and could 

 do nothing. I noted one A. belia, a few Lampides boeticus, and many 

 Pyrameis car dux. During the last few days of the month and early 

 in May ( 'atochrysops theophrastus abounded in the Ezbeniah Gardens 

 at Cairo, and large numbers were obtainable from grass stems after 

 4.30 p.m. A visit to Ezbet el Nakhla produced nothing but a few Polyom- 

 matus lysimon, the ground having been ruined by the operations of a 

 building society. On May 7th, I again tried Wadi Rished, and found 

 hundreds of Pyrameis cardui and Heliothis armigera (tomato-feeding 

 species) everywhere. Of the much-needed Plebeius allardii I only got 

 two males, seeing a female which escaped. I also, to my great surprise, 

 saw one ('alias edusa male, and took two Pieris rapae, small specimens 

 with very white undersides, which I had never before seen in the 

 desert. Crucifers were exceptionally abundant in the Wadi, which 

 may explain the occurrence there of a field and garden species. I took 

 several Pontia glauconome — rather worn — one P. daplidice — my third 

 in Egypt, also the worse for wear — and several worn Poly ommatus lysimon 

 and fresh Lampides boeticus, with a female Langia telicanus ovipositingon 

 Alhagi manniferum, and a fresh Sterrha sacraria. To return to Cairo, 

 Gatochrysops theophrastus, rarer at the end of the month, grew very 

 common again in June, when Langia telicanus appeared in a fresh brood, 

 the first specimens being taken by me on the 20th. I obtained numerous 

 larvffi of Hypolycaena livia on fitneh, but have thus far only obtained 

 one male and three females from pupae. Pending a full description 

 of the ova and larval stages of this interesting insect I may make the 

 following observations : 



1. The ova are deposited on occupied and unoccupied pods by the female 

 butterfly. On a pod which contained a three-parts-grown larva 1 found eight ova. 



2. More than one larva may be found in a single pod. I took two large 

 larvae in the penultimate instar in one pod on June 15th. I surmise that if two 

 larvfE meet one devours the other : three cases of cannibalism — one of a pupa 

 freshly-formed and two of larvae — have come to my notice while rearing the 

 larvae. 



3. The insect, like the Indian Virachola isocrates, will devour pomegranate 

 fruit, and is reported by Mr. Willcocks to do much damage to the pomegranate 

 orchards in Upper Egypt. 



On June 26th, I noticed two or three very small Lampides boeticus 

 g. a. aestira, Zeller, on grass stems in the Ezbekiah Gardens, but had, 

 unluckily, no means of catching them. On the same afternoon 

 Polyommatus lysimon, Gatochrysops theophrastus and Langia telicanus 

 were greatly in evidence, the first two roosting on grass stems, the 

 latter on bushes. Finally, I may note that the local press recorded 

 a " plague of butterflies of all sizes and colours " as troubling Suez 

 in the first half of May. Enquiries showed that only one species, 

 Pyrameis cardui, was at all common there, but that, in revenge, this 

 species occurred by the thousand in the town, the desert, and the 

 small cultivated area near the port. 



j^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Lepidoptera in Cumberland. — This season up to now has been one 

 of the wettest known. Insects have consequently been very backward. 



