378 NOTES ON VARIOUS INSECTS. 



stronger in proportion to its size. A friend placed one 

 of them under a tumbler for me ; but it soon brought the 

 tumbler to the edge of the table, and overhanging it sufficiently 

 to drop down. We afterwards placed a book above the 

 tumbler, but this additional weight was not sufficient to prevent 

 another display of its Herculean powers. Its pellets are twice 

 the size of itself, and both male and female assist in rolling 

 them. It is a common species in spring and autumn. 



13. Sisyphus Schcefferi also rolls pellets. I could not 

 discover the use of its long hind legs. 



14. Cymindis miliaris and C. homagrica I found under 

 moss-grown stones in a pine forest on the Black Mountain, 

 Cephalonia, and close to a hut called Kennedy's Cottage. 

 Lamia Lugubris I had captured, on a former excursion, on 

 the very summit of the mountain, 5,316 feet above the level of 

 the sea, on a mound of stones, containing petrified bones and 

 fragments of terra cotta vases, supposed to have been the site 

 of an altar to Jupiter. On this excursion I particularly gave 

 my attention to examining the white bleached trunks of the 

 pines which once clothed the mountain — a noble forest — and 

 gave to it its surname of Black — (this forest was almost com- 

 pletely consumed by fire) — but without success. On returning 

 to Kennedy's Cottage, I was told by a brother officer, who had 

 remained behind, that he had amused himself in the morning 

 by watching two of them crawling up one of the pines close to 

 the cottage. I accordingly examined the tree, and even took 

 the trouble to climb it, but without success, and sat down to 

 our pic-nic dinner not altogether pleased ; for I had been very 

 unsuccessful, finding only scorpions, centipedes, and insects 

 extremely common either in England or Cephalonia ; but after 

 dinner, at sunset, the Lamia? again took their walk, and I 

 captured them crawling down the pine. In winter, part of the 

 Black Mountain is covered with snow, and in summer the 

 climate is a delightful contrast to the heat of Cephalonia. I 

 found equally few flowers, the only interesting plants being the 

 piony rose, holyhock, bee orchis, and sweet briar. I felt the 

 more surprised, from having shortly before crossed the Simplon 

 and Cenis, in which nature seems to do her best to blend the 

 floras of Italy and Lapland. Lamia tristis I also found 

 on pine ; and may remark that it was much darker in colour 

 than such as I found on white cypress, olive, fig, and quince. 



