SOME ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES FROM EG-YPT AND PALESTINE. 223 



a Nemotelns, a Haematohia, and the above mentioned Syrphids. It is 

 possible that later in the season these reed beds may be more prolific, 

 and again there was an immense area here compared with the re- 

 stricted patches of similar vegetation in my home collecting grounds 

 in the Thames marshes, by Erith or Gravesend, when on any sum- 

 mer's day I would reckon on seeing from ten to twenty times the num- 

 ber of Diptera, both as regards species and specimens. 



As regards the other orders of insects, I have previously referred to 

 the Dragonflies as the most common, they were also very much- in 

 evidence on the margin of lake Menzaleh. Several specimens of a 

 large green Mantis were brought to me for identification, usually 

 accompanied by anxious queries as to their possible stinging propensi- 

 ties. I never saw these Mantidae preying on other insects, nor did 

 they take any notice of sundry flies I offered them. Ant-lions used 

 occasionally to be attracted by the lights in the tents. A large black 

 species of cricket was comuion and very vociferous at night. I had 

 one or two odd specimens of locusts and grasshoppers brought to me. 

 In the Hymenoptera a large and active species of black ant occurred 

 generally. I noticed a small bee (? a mason-bee) on the walls of a 

 native house used as an oiScers' mess, and at Tanka Station I observed 

 numbers of a large Hymenopteron flying about. It was about the size 

 of an English hornet, but as I was in the train at the time I had no 

 opportunity of seeing one settled, and cannot identify it unless it was 

 the same species as a very handsome wasp that occurred now and again 

 in single specimens in the Canal bank camps. 



I saw very few species of beetles, although their' tracks were 

 numerous on the sand in the early mornings. At Kantara, in March, 

 a densely hairy species of beetle, resembling a small humble bee, was 

 fairly common, flying about in the hot sun, but it was not noticed after 

 the end of that month. In the same camp, when the wind was blow- 

 ing from lake Menzaleh, numerous small Hemiptera used to come 

 to lights at night, and when bathing in the canal I several times noticed 

 a small species of Trichoptera floating on the surface of the water. I 

 once came across a Lepisma in a hut near the cookhouses. 



II. Palestine. 



Owing to military reasons not unconnected with the Turk, my 

 experience of Palestine has so far been limited to the undulatory grass- 

 covered country below Gaza, and a belt of palms, figs, and sandhills 

 bordering the seacoast. It was a great relief to the eyeS to get away 

 from the constant glare of the desert sands, and to see green hills again, 

 although the grasses were even then (May) beginning to wither. The 

 country had a very homelike appearance, heightened by the presence of 

 certain British birds and wild flowers, e.g., skylarks and poppies, con- 

 volvulus, and hawkweeds. 



When the British' forces first reached Palestine these downs were 

 covered^ with crops and grasses ; as might be expected insect life was 

 much more in evidence here than in the sandy wastes of the Sinai 

 Peninsula. I was told that lots of butterflies and moths were then to 

 be seen, " cardui occurring in flights of several hundreds towards the 

 end of April, and machaon, edusa, and daplidice also very common," 

 but by the time I arrived — about the middle of May — they had mostly 

 disappeared. As stated above, the grasses were rapidly withering, and 



