84 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



times in the air dropping as it wheeled and then settle almost at my 

 feet. A stroke of the net and I had a very fresh ? of Castalins jeaonx 

 in my possession. This was my last good catch of the day, but on my 

 way back to the station I noted 1. podalirius and P. machaon, one of 

 the latter very fresh, and more M. trivia, Y. asterope and C. thersamon. 



On the following day I went out by tram to the railway bridge, 

 where the Lebanon railway crosses the coast road, and thence worked 

 the railway banks. I began collecting at about 5 p.m., my object 

 being to try for Lycjienids and for B. wesentina, which I had seen 

 there in swarms while passing in the train on September 9th. The 

 Lycienids did not appear, but B. wesentina, generally in very good 

 condition, swarmed. Every tuft of grass or clump of thistles carried 

 two or three specimens, either resting or settling to fly oft' again, and 

 return preparatory to finding a resting place. The insect was 

 extremely variable in size. Larv?e abounded on the bushes of 

 Capparis {.') fnicticosa, and pupje, some dead and many living, were 

 fixed to dry stems of many bushes which had been eaten bare of their 

 leaves by the voracious caterpillars. 1 looked in vain for larvte or 

 pupse of Idiiiais faiista. The imagines were not uncommon, roosting 

 like those of B. viesentina on tufts of grass, dry thistles, etc., but the 

 profusion in which the African Pierid occurred made the " salmon 

 butterfly " seem rare by comparison. On one branch of a Capparis 

 bush I counted fifteen pupae or empty pupa cases of B. uiesentina. On 

 another, which I cut, there were fourteen, mostly empty, and one or 

 two superimposed upon earlier pupae the imagines of which had in two 

 cases not been able to emerge properly and were dead and dried, half 

 out of the case, pressed down by later pupas. A branch with twelve 

 pupae on a space of about ten inches in length, gave me eight imagines 

 on the following day, all rather undersized examples. Five emerged 

 at dawn — the rest later in the da}'. 



I paid a visit to the Dog River on the 12th, but found little at this 

 usually productive spot. L. sinapis of the third brood occurred here 

 and there, and I took one ragged [Jineuitis nun ilia with a male II. 

 telicanits, but nothing else was moving save a few worn 1'. asterope, so 

 I strolled off to the quarries, some 250 yards from the river mouth, 

 and there amused myself with 1. fausta and />'. )iiesentiua, which 

 abounded on hot glaring rocks where the caper-bushes grew. A single 

 Chilades trochiliis, generally to be found at this hot and dry spot, and 

 several ('. thersavum were taken, and one ragged female of Cii/aritis 

 acarnas, an insect which is not uncommon on dry, stony hill-sides and 

 banks near Beirut, but of which ©ne scarcely ever gets a perfect 

 specimen. I then walked to Dbaye station, and while waiting for the 

 train, collected in a couple of little fields surrounded by hedges beside 

 the line. ^Yorn //. tdicanns occurred there with L. boeticiis, and \)\enty 

 of worn F. rajiae and fresh C. tliermiiion. I took a good male I', icariis 

 of the vinra-inacidata form. Next evening I again worked the railway 

 banks for B. iiiesenti)ia, and on the 14th and 15th was Professor Day's 

 guest at Aleih. Here I collected in the last patch of scrub wood left 

 near the Professor's house. Insects were comparatively rare here, and 

 mostly worn. A single worn S. herniione var. syriaca, and an almost 

 wingless N. fatna var. Kichaca, a small form of A. astrarche, with single 

 specimens of C. painpJnlua, bleached almost white, ('. thersamon, Y. 

 asUrope, and C. aryiolus, and a fresh and large specimen oiMiischaiDjiia 



