170 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



AN ALGERIAN HOLIDAY. 



By a. E. Gibbs, F.B.S. 



(Plate VI.) 



(Concluded from p. 140.) 



Tlemcen is a wonderful and seductive town, with beautiful 

 mosques and surrounded by ancient walls, a place which, once 

 visited, cannot be forgotten, but which inspires a longing to 

 return and linger once more in its ancient streets, or wander 

 among the ruins which are scattered with prodigal profusion 

 over the surrounding country. It is built at the foot of another 

 of the ranges which go to make up the Atlas, the western horizon 

 being bounded by the high mountains of Morocco. From the point 

 of view of the antiquary and historian it ranks among the most 

 interesting cities in the world, but a wholesome fear of the editor's 

 blue pencil deters me from getting too far off the track, and I 

 must get back to the insects. The morning after my arrival, 

 Tuesday, May 31st, found me on the hillside above the town. 

 The tantalising and elusive pandora greeted me among the gar- 

 dens outside the walls. Pieris brassicce and Rumicia phlcsas, the 

 latter with hind wings rather strongly tailed, fell victims, and 

 then on a bare hillside I caught sight of an insect which I took 

 to be Melitcea phoehe, but a closer acquaintance showed that it was 

 something new. A second specimen was taken near by, but 

 these were the only two seen. They proved to be M. cetherie var. 

 algirica, Stgr., and I take it they belonged to a second generation 

 which was just making its appearance, as they were in the pink 

 of condition and had evidently only just emerged. Allard* 

 records its occurrence at Lambessa in April. The most abun- 

 dant "blue" was Polyommatus astrarche, of the form known as 

 calida, a fine variety with a reddish -brown ground colour and 

 strongly developed orange submarginal spots. Miss Fountaine 

 mentions! the capture of this insect at Tlem9en in July, 1904. 



Working my way down the hillside again by a steep and narrow 

 path between the gardens, where I took a few each of P. egeria 

 and P. megara, I found myself in the Arab cemetery. Striking 

 upwards once more a female of the summer brood of Papilio 

 podalirius was discovered sunning itself on the foliage of a young 

 tree, and was the only example to fall to my lot of a species I 

 expected to find rather abundant, but I subsequently saw a 

 second specimen in the forest while travelling by train from 

 Tlem9en to Lallah Maghnia. Continuing the ascent I arrived 

 at the beautiful mosque of Sidi-Bou-Medine, with its graceful 

 minaret and elaborately carved doorway, rich with tile-work and 

 mosaics. Very lovely indeed is this structure, nestling in the 



■' ' Anuales de la Societe Entomologique de France,' 1867, p. 314. 

 f ' Entomologist,' xxxix. 108. 



