Enumera- 
tion of 
Oriental 
Hymenop- 
tera. 
Xylocopa 
violacea, 
Vespa 
erabro and 
Vespa 
orientalis. 
* Chalico- 
doma Sicula, 
126 REV. F. A. WALKER, D:D., F.L.S. 
Among Hymenoptera may be mentioned a well-known 
Continental species, Xylocopa violacea, being a bee of large 
size, body and wings alike almost black, with a tinge of 
violet, from the Pass of Daphne, in May, 1882, and two kinds 
of hornet—the one our own Vespa crabro, from the tombs of 
the Maccabees, Latroon, in March, and also occurring at 
Kiphesus, Philadelphia, and the River Meles, in the month of 
May, 1882; the other is Vespa orientalis, resembling our 
English one in colour and markings, but more elegant in 
shape. This last one was swarming in December, 1883, in 
and about Cairo and Heliopolis, being more particularly 
abundant at the confectioners’ and bakers’ booths, on the 
high, mud-built walls in the vicinity of the Boulak Museum 
and the Ostrich Farm, and likewise found at Helwan, 
Lycopolis, and on the roof of the Temple of Isis at Denderah. 
In this last-named place several of them were clustered on 
patches of clay containing cells, and which are the work of a 
small rust-coloured bee, Chalicodoma Sicula. Some of these 
hornets, being disturbed at our approach, began to fly about 
wildly, thereby rendering one’s walk along the roof, at a 
height of, say, thirty feet from the ground without, and 
possibly twenty from the space within, the Temple, with no 
breastwork or parapet on either side, not over comfortable. 
Vespa crabro and Vespa orientalis might readily be taken for 
one another when not seen side by side. 
With regard to the above-named bee, Chalicodoma Sicula, 
of which there are specimens from Sicily and Algiers in the 
National collection, the amount and extent of its labour is 
truly wonderful. On reference to my Nine Hundred Miles 
Up the Nile, p. 137, I find the following paragraph about the 
same species at the Temple of Denderah :—‘‘ Hymenoptera 
are as busy here with their clay cells as elsewhere. ‘They 
have plastered not only the hieroglyphics, but one whole side 
of the exterior of the temple, as well as the outer wall of the 
little chapel of Isis, on the roof.” Again, with regard to the 
celebrated obelisk of Heliopolis, pp. 83 and 84 of the same 
work :—‘ The hieroglyphics, which are similar, or nearly so, 
on all four sides of the monument, include the hawk, the 
goose, the serpent, the ibis, and the head of the greyhound, 
and have been interpreted to mean as follows :-— 
The Hor of the Sun 
The life for those who are born 
The King of the upper and lower land 
Khepher-ka-ra 
The Lord of the Double Crown 
