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ORIENTAL ENTOMOLOGY. 



By the Rev. F. A. Walker, D.D. 



(Contiuued from p. 9.) 



During my first visit to the East I captured 38 species 

 of Coleoptera in Greece, 34 in Asia Minor, 21 in Syria, 18 in 

 Palestine, 15 in Turkey, 7 in Egypt. On my second expedition 

 I only captured 8 species of Coleoptera, 5 in Egypt and 3 in 

 Nubia. 



The difference in the number of species respectively noticed 

 in the different countries may possibly be attributable, to some 

 extent, to the time of year when the various localities were 

 visited; and there are additional grounds for entertaining this 

 hypothesis in the fact that the later the period the larger the 

 number of species proved : for example, 7 in Egypt (in the 

 month of March), 18 in Palestine (March — April), 21 in Syria 

 (April), 34 in Asia Minor (May), and 38 in Greece (May — June). 

 Only 13, it is true, were noticed in Turkey in the month of May, 

 for the simple reason that a great part of my time was spent in 

 visiting the public buildings, instead of in the open country. 

 The genus Oxythyrea had a wide range, occurring alike in Pales- 

 tine, Syria, Asia Minor, Turkey, and Greece, Two species of this 

 tribe were found in great abundance, viz., cinctella and hirtella, 

 and for the most part, as was also the case with many of the 

 Cetonias, when tightly ensconced in the middle of a flower. I 

 never saw any kind of beetle anywhere in such countless 

 profusion as the showy orange and black-spotted Mylabris 

 quadripunctata, on the ears of ripe corn, during our return 

 drive from Deceleia on the 1st of June, at the close of a bright 

 and hot day. Some few good sorts were found beneath stones; 

 seven specimens, for example, of the rare Nebria hernjmchii, at 

 Aceldama, on April 3rd, and Chlcenius spoliatus, C. vestitus, 

 Anchomemis mistriaciis, and such like metallic Coleoptera on the 

 wet ground in the vicinity of the Great Bend or reservoir 

 of Sultan Selim, that had recently overflowed its boundary on 

 the 25th of May, at Belgrade. Anthia sex-maculata (variegated 

 black and white) is the handsomest, decidedl}' so, of the very few 

 species I saw in all Egypt, and was taken running about the 

 sand heaps that are silted up bj' the action of the desert winds. 



