MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 377 



No. XXIX.— ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MESOPOTAMIA. 



When I left Bombay last November, I had the foresight to enclose a 

 folding butterfly-net and a few other necessaries for an entomologist in 

 the limited amount of kit permitted to be taken on Field Service and these 

 have occasionally come in very useful as I have been shifted from point to 

 point in the extended field of operations. The following notes on the 

 butterflies of Lower Mesopotamia will be of interest to some of the readers 

 of the Journal. When one remembers what a fertile spot the valley of the 

 Tigris and Euphrates has been in the past centuries, the number of species 

 taken has been surprisingly and disappointingly small and this is probably 

 due in part to the annual flooding of the country and the same character 

 of the vegetation. Referring to my diary I am able to give the following 

 list :— 



Dan:ns chviidppus '. . Three specimens taken in Basra, (November). 



Dhiramiyeh, (May) and Kerna, (May). 

 Junonia oritJiya . . Shaiba, Kerna and Amarah, all the year round 



apparently. 

 Fanessa cardui . . Shaiba, swarming in the Bjorjidiyeh wood,(March 



— May). Basra, (December). 

 Vanessa indica . . Two specimens seen at Shaiba, (April). 

 Colzas edusa . . Ahwaz, (May). Amarah, July. Not uncommon. 



Colias hyale . . One female taken Amarah, (July). 



IHeris brassicce . . Very common in Basra, (December). 

 Pieris ? . . Closely resembles P. rapce. Two specimens taken 



at Amarah, (July) . 

 Teracolus fausta . . Not uncommon in Basra and Kerna, (November 



— December). 

 Polyoinmatus bveticus. Basra, (November). Amarah, (July). 

 Catochrysops strabo. . Amarah, (July). Not uncommon. 

 Zixera lysimon . . Kerna, (January — February). Shaiba, (March 



— April). Amarah, (July). Very common. . 

 Zizera (jaika ? .. Amarah, (July). Two specimens. 

 Tarucus theop)hrast}is. Amarah. Not uncommon. 



Hesperid . . A common Indian species whose name has 



slipped my memory. 

 The one surprise was Colias, all of which were taken on small patches of 

 lucerne at river level which at Amarah is not much above sea-level. Only a 

 narrow margin of vegetation borders the rivers on either side and beyond 

 this barren desert stretches away to the horizon. At Amarah the hills are 

 some sixty miles ofl' and at Ahwaz snow ranges can be seen at a greater 

 distance. 



Of other families of Insecta, perhaps, the best represented are the 

 Odonata which, of course, would be suspected in a country subjected to 

 inundation. I have taken several interesting species of these. Coleoptera 

 and Rhynchota are not in evidence but I have seen more species of Blattidce 

 here than I have noticed in India. At Shaiba well out in the desert I took 

 two species of Mantis which are new to me. One species is common, of the 

 other I only found one specimen and it is evidently as rare as it is inte- 

 resting. I found it on the most barren desert, its upper surface rounded, 

 brownish in colour and altogether resembling a pebble or piece of dry mud. 

 When disturbed, it reared itself on to its terminal abdominal segments, two 

 long spikes assisting in this by forming a tripod with the tip of the anal 

 segment as third leg. The under-surface is pure white in striking contrast 

 to the upper. The wings are purely rudimentary and not adapted for flying 

 and at the time of rearing the body in the erect position, these are spread 

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