SOME ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES FROM EGYPT AND PALESTINE. 221 



Some Entomological Notes from Egypt and Palestine. 



By H. W. ANDREWS, F.E.S. 

 The following notes on some of the Dipteca and other insects 

 observed during the past eighteen months in Egypt and Palestine may 

 be of interest to your readers. They are necessarily of a cursory and 

 indeterminate character, as my duties prevented my leaving the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of the various camps at which I was stationed, 

 and I had no collecting apparatus nor books of reference ; thus these 

 observations merely refer to the insects I happened to notice in the 

 course of my daily work. Then, too, the fact that such vegetation as 

 chanced to exist in the vicinity of the camps got speedily trodden 

 down was a further handicap to entomological investigation. 



I. Egypt. 



On landing in Egypt in February, 1916, I was stationed at a 

 training centre on the outskirts of Cairo. One of the first things that 

 struck me here was the abrupt line of demarcation between the culti- 

 vated land and the desert ; in fact one could frequently stand with one 

 foot in a field and one on the desert sands. I noticed very few insects 

 here beyond the common housefly and some small Scarahaeus beetles. 

 There was a large number of birds closely resembling an English wag- 

 tail, very tame, and running about between the lines of tents, and these 

 may have had some effect on insect life. I only saw one or two butter- 

 flies, including a "blue" and a Vanessid, during my stay. When 

 visiting the Zoological Gardens, at Gizeh, I saw a few Diptera, mostly 

 Muscidae and an Anthomyid, but in no great numbers. After a stay of 

 some weeks at this camp I was moved to the eastern bank of the Suez 

 Canal, and here I remained in various camps, chiefly on the eastern 

 side, for the remainder of my stay in Egypt. 



The commonest insects — apart from the ubiquitous houseflies — 

 were various species of dragonflies; these were in evidence during the 

 whole of the spring, summer, and autumn. In all probability they 

 breed in the Sweet Water Canal which runs parallel to, and on the 

 Egyptian side of, the Canal proper for some three-quarters of its course, 

 and which, in addition to the vegetation on its banks, helps to' irrigate 

 a narrow belt of cultivated land.* I was but little troubled with 

 mosquitoes on the eastern side of the canal, but other units stationed 

 on the western bank suffered a good deal. Both Cidecc and Anopheles 

 were identified at Shallufa. The cultivated land irrigated by the Sweet 

 Water Canal probably afforded favourable breeding grounds. As regards 

 Diptera, I saw a fair number of a species of Anthrax, somewhat similar 

 in its wing markings to A. paniscus, but a good deal larger. A small 

 Asilid was occasionally met with on the shore. I once or twice saw a 

 Tabanid resembling Tabanus hromius, and after a day of violent wind 

 and sandstorms numerous specimens of a small Syrphid were observed 

 on the tents, presumably blown across from the cultivated land on the 



* Despite its name-, the waters of this canal, also any surface pools or swamp 

 waters, are dangerous to Europeans, as they contain quantities of a minute para- 

 sitic worm, which enters the body through the skin or by the mouth, causing a 

 disease called Bilharziosis. In consequence of this all ranks of the B.E.F. were 

 forbidden to drink, bathe, wash, or fish in these waters. 

 November 15th 1917. 



