277 

 ENTOMOLOaiCAL FIELD NOTES AT StJAKIN. 



BT N. MANDEES. 



The insect-fauna of the Sudan being at present little known, any 

 notes on the region will be interesting ; and, therefore, I venture to 

 record the scanty information I obtained during the campaign in the 

 neighbourhood of Suakin last spring. 



So much has lately appeared regarding our various operations 

 there, that any detailed remarks on the country itself would be super- 

 fluous ; but I was somewhat surprised to find the country, especially 

 near the mountains, supporting a vegetation in some parts decidedly 

 thick, and not altogether the barren waste I had imagined. Erom the 

 top of the isolated hill at Handoub (12|^ miles inland), the country 

 looks fairly well-wooded and a fine expanse of green meets the eye, 

 which is continued up to quite the foot of the mountains, being more 

 luxuriant in the neighbourhood of the water-courses which dry up 

 during the spring months. 



The vegetation was of the character usually found in tropical 

 deserts ; Mimosas, thorny Acacias, and various species of EupliorhicB 

 preponderating, the former ran commonly to the size of a thorn-tree, 

 usually very dense, covered with creepers and armed with thorns of 

 of an alarming character. One species known to us there as the 

 *' umbrella Mimosa," and which I am told is peculiar to the Sudan, is 

 remarkable inasmuch as it throws out branches in every direction im- 

 mediately above the ground, and presents a plane surface of closely 

 approximated small flat green leaves which it is impossible to see 

 through, and which, consequently, considerably aided the Arabs in 

 carrying out their sudden attacks. 



^lowering plants were naturally not abundant, still I think I 

 might have collected about a score of different kinds ; but I had no 

 means of carrying or preserving them. One species — yellow with a 

 red centre, something like a foxglove — was very fine and conspicuous. 



Animal life was far more abundant than I had expected, but the 

 night dews were very heavy, and were due to the cool night winds from 

 the sea condensing the hot vapour given off from the earth ; often on 

 waking I found my blanket wet through, and the early mornings were 

 very cold, so that condensation must have taken place very rapidly. 



The butterflies more particularly engaged my attention, and of 

 these Fyrameis cardui was by far the commonest ; Danais CTirysippus 

 was also not uncommon and in splendid condition, but too difiicultfor 

 me to catch with my improvised net of mosquito netting and telegraph 



