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VII. 



LEPIDOPTERA. 



By the Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD, Ph.D., F.R.S. 



The collection is of considerable interest : firstlj', it is the only larger collection 

 from sonth of Biskra (Dr. Kranse's collection was mnch smaller) and south of 

 Onargla it is the first record we possess ; and secondly, becanse it contains an 

 extraordinary number of species which were originally described from snob widely 

 separated places as Socotra, Egypt, Tnrkestan, Persia, and India, besides 35 new 

 species and 3 new subspecies. This is a proof that the true desert species are very 

 widespread and that similar environment produces similar inhabitants. 



The collection consists of 1509 lepidoptera, several specimens of the larvae of 

 Papilio and Celerio, a number of cases of the Psychid Amicta murina, and a 

 number of galls of the Microlepidopteron Oecocecis guyonella Gn. Tiiere are 

 158 species, as follows : Fapilionidae, 9 ; Daniinae, 1 ; Nymplmlidae, 3 ; Lycae- 

 nidae, 4 ; Hesperildae, 1 ; Sphingidae, 3 ; Lymantriidae, 3 ; Lasiocampidae, 1 ; 

 Noctuidae, 59 ; Geometridae, 14 ; Arctiadae, 1 ; Psyckidae, 1 ; Cossidae, 2 ; 

 Fyralidae, 52 ; Microlepidoptera, 5. 



RHOPALOCERA. 

 FAFILIOSflDAE. 



1. Papilio machaon hospitonides Uberth. 



1 (?, S. Oned Mya; 1 <?, 1 ?, Ghardai'a ; 1 S i , 1 ?, El-Hadadra, between 

 El-Golea and Ghardaia. 



The eleven specimens are indistinguishable from Biskra specimens, and two 

 half-grown larvae agree entirely with Oherthiir's figure {Etudes, xii. PI. V.). As 

 I have never seen half-grown larvae from the Bou-Saada-Laghouat region, and 

 lioth adult larvae and bred imagines from Bou Saada differ somewhat from the 

 [iresent series and our Biskra examples, I, for the time being, do not care to unite 

 P. m. kospituiddes and P. m. mkarae, Oberth. described from Laghouat. 8hould 

 they hereafter prove identical, which is very probable, the name saharae has 

 priority. 



Dr. Seitz is (juite wrong in treating hospitonides and saharae as aberrations of 

 rnackaon ; they are certainly a good local race, if not two. They differ from the 

 northern Algerian machaon sphyrus {(isiatica Oberth. and Seitz, nee Men.) in their 

 usually uniformly small size, deeper canary-yellow colour, much larger submarginal 

 yellow patches, narrower black bands, and thinner, more acute, tails. There is 

 also an indefiuaiile yellowisii bloom over most of the specimens not observable in 

 examples from north of tiie Atlas. The larvae have longitudinal rows of .sej)arate 

 black spots on a much paler a])ple-green ground ; not transverse bands or rings of 

 black on bright ai)i)le-green, as in /•". in. muchion. 



[For the first time we saw a single Swallow-tail near the Tilmas-Djilrliemiit, 

 iu the bed of the Oued Mya, but the specimen was not caught. On the return 



