A CONTRIBUTION TO THE FAUNA OF SYRIA. 33 



a T/u'stnr, either T. not/elii ov T. caUhiuicIitis, taken in late May, at about 

 3,000 feet, in woods at Dlibta, above Ghazir, near the sea coast, in the 

 north-central Lebanon, were also interesting. Acting on Signor 

 Cremona's advice, I collected on the 10th, near Dora, a station some 

 two miles outside Beirut. Arriving very early in the morning, at about 

 7.30 a.m. to be precise, I began to hunt in some vegetable gardens 

 north of Dora Station, but found nothing there save a few L'hrysuphanus 

 tliersawoii of the tailed summer form, and a single Pieris brassjcae, 

 which escaped the net. A little further on was a pine grove, which 

 I explored, but found at first unproductive, save for a worn P. dajdidice 

 and some Yp/itliima asternpe. Beyond the grove was a nice little 

 meadow, where hundreds of grasshoppers of many species made a most 

 cheerful sound. As I got to the field, which was quite close to the 

 railway, and bordered on all sides with hedges made of tall reeds, the 

 sun came out from behind the heat haze Avhich had till then obscured 

 it, and insects at once began to move. Among them I saw several 

 Melitasas, which proved to be M. triria of the third brood (if this species 

 is not continuously brooded on the coast), plenty of C. thersainon, 

 a good few P. icanis, and occasional //. tdicanus, while hurrying Colias 

 edusa and Idniais faiista occasionally went by. After taking what 

 I wanted, I went back through the pine wood, taking a passable female 

 K.Jiirtina on the way. This struck me as pretty late for the coast, 

 where I had found K. jiirthia, of the telmcssia form, in the first fort- 

 night of May, in 1905, while Miss Fountaine had recorded it from the 

 American college grounds in April. One cannot help suspecting at 

 least a partial second brood, the more so as the climatic conditions on 

 the Syrian coast are, as I have pointed out, so stable as to be unlikely 

 to co-operate with other causes in producing laggards. I then retraced 

 my steps past the station and collected on some rather damp ground 

 intersected by ditches lined with reeds. Near the station I caught my 

 first Syrian L. clirijsipjius, a fine typical specimen, and afterwards took 

 several more, only one of which, however, was worth keeping. I looked 

 about for tliipoUwnaH misipjuis, one or two of which are taken every 

 year by Signor Cremona on this ground, or three miles further on, 

 near the Beirut water-works at Dbaye, but it was in all probability too 

 late for this species. I saw none. /'. n-anis, including a female ab. 

 seiiiiarcuata, ('. edusa, worn, M. triria, C. therRamov, P. daplidice, P. 

 rapae, and occasional Belenois iiiesentina with odd L. hoeticns and. 

 /. fai(sta, were the insects of this part of the Beirut River delta. The 

 whole of the plain between Beirut and the Dog River is simply a delta 

 of alluvial soil brought down from the Lebanon by the Nahr Beirut, 

 Nahr Antelias and other streams. It is fertile and extensively 

 cultivated, but cultivation is not intense. There are plenty of banks 

 and hedges where insects abound, and near the sea coast part of the 

 foreshore, which seems to be too sandj'for cultivation, is given over to 

 pasture. 



At one point where the ground seemed more marshy than usual, I 

 came across a clump of about a dozen "fitneh" Acacia trees, round the 

 summits of which, some ten or twelve feet above the ground, two or 

 three " blues " were flying. I took one which came within reach, but 

 it was only a worn male of Pi. telicanns. However, on walking to the 

 other side of one of these clumps of Acacia, I saw a " blue," with a 

 circling flight very like that of L. boeticus, wheel round two or three 



