COLLECTING LEPIDOPTEEA IN SYEIA IN 1905. 125 



dry and open banks were far the best for insects, the woods contain- 

 ing little or nothing but Aporia crataegi. 



The next week was taken up with a railway trip to Ma'an, the 

 then rail-head of the Hedjaz railway. Here I saw nothing but 

 stones and red-hot rocks, but, in the cornfields of the Haurau plain, 

 Pyrameis cardui, Melitaea didyma, Issoria lathonia, Pontia daplidice, 

 and a Melanaryia, were flying. The country might repay a collector, 

 and Amman (Rabbath-Ammon), where there are bushes and water 

 in plenty at a height of 3000 feet, looked good hunting-ground, 

 though I only saw Satyrus telephassa there. Then came 80 miles 

 of steppe, not unlike the Maryut steppe, west of Alexandria, 

 with Pontia daplidice and Satyrus telephassa swarming, and these 

 two species persisted in the scrub of the hot ravines of the black 

 stone wilderness south of the Dead Sea, at Jurf el Derwish, some 30 

 miles north of Ma'an. I say P. daplidice with a little doubt, since I 

 suspect that, in the rocky desert, P. glauconome occurs. It abounds in 

 the Sinai, and some of the whites I saw in the wadis had the rapid 

 tearing flight of P. glauconome. Still, as P. daplidice occurs, though 

 very rarely near Helouan, in the same sort of country, 15 miles south- 

 east of Cairo, I have really no right to assume that these whites 

 belonged to any other species. On my return, several black and white 

 burnet-looking moths entered the carriage in the early dawn at Ezraa, 

 Hauran. This species occurs at Niha, where I took a bad specimen, 

 and is, I am informed, Syntomis phegea. 



After my return to Damascus I visited Zebedani, and was able to 

 commence operations at 10.30 a.m. in bright but cool weather. The 

 town lies in a plain some 3000 feet above sea-level. Through the 

 plain, which is full of orchards and gardens, runs the Barada. The 

 mountains, highest on the eastern side, run up very sheerly, culminating 

 in steep cliffs and screes above Bludan. Between Zebedani and 

 Bludan, a village some 1800 feet above the valley, are shady lanes and 

 small copses, and, nearer the village, open cornfields and banks covered 

 with thistles and various spiky and aromatic plants. The railway- 

 banks were my first hunting-ground, and I there took some fine and 

 very large Dryas pandora, a single Argynnis niobe var. eris, and a 

 specimen of Papilio podalirius var. virgatus. Chrysophamis phlaeas was 

 not uncommon. I took the type and a very dark specimen very near 

 g. a. eleus. Thais cerisyi (type and var. deyrollei), Aporia crataegi, S. 

 orbifer, and a few Hesperia malvae var. melotis were noted, with one or 

 two S. telephassa, six Limenitis caniilla, and worn Melitaea phoebe, Issoria 

 lathonia, Pontia daplidice, and Polyommatus icarus. I also took a few 

 hairstreaks, a form of Thecla spini, but was rather surprised at the com- 

 parative rarity of Lycsnids. The bushy lanes on the lower slopes produced 

 nothing new, but, in the cornfields, I found Melitaea didyma approach- 

 ing var. turanica out in numbers, though most were worn, more Melitaea 

 phoebe, Erynnis althaeae, and a fine Syrichthus tessellum var. nomas. 

 M. phoebe was clearly over, as were Polyommatus astrarche and Pontia 

 daplidice. On my return I picked up a damaged Nisoniades marloyi, 

 and near the station got a very worn P. bato7i var. clara. Just before 

 getting into the train I saw what was either Gonepteryx rhamni or 

 G. farinosa flying about the station, but could not test which it really 

 was. I failed to see several species noted by Mrs. Nicholl at Zebedani, 

 and imagine that I was, in some cases, too early. 



I 



