1888.] 175 



A YEAE'S INSECT-HUNTINa AT GIBEALTAE. 



BY JAMES J. WALKEE, E.N., F.E.S. 



The insect fauna o£ the south of Spain has been investigated by 

 such weli-linown Entomologists as Rambur, Graslin, Eosenbauer, 

 Dieck, &c. ; but, as far as I have been able to ascertain, nothing has 

 been published respecting that of our British possessions at Gibraltar 

 and the immediate neighbourhood, except some notes on the butterflies 

 in the "Entomologist" (Nos. 246 and 247, IS^ov. and Dec, 1883). 

 As I have had ample opportunities of collecting in this very interesting 

 locality since my appointment to 11. M. gunboat " Grappler " stationed 

 here, I venture to put my experiences on record, as a contribution to 

 the knowledge of the entomology of this extreme southern corner of 

 the European continent, prefacing them with a brief account of the 

 chief physical and botanical features of the district. 



The Eock of Gibraltar is a huge isolated mass of hard greyish- 

 white limestone of Jurassic age, about 2| miles in extreme length, 

 with a varying width, at the sea-level, of from 440 to 1300 yards. 

 A level sandy isthmus, scarcely ten feet above high-water mark in any 

 part, connects it with the Spanish mainland, and from this the northern 

 face of the Eock rises in one magnificent vertical precipice to a height 

 of over 1200 feet. Thence, for rather more than a mile, the crest of 

 the Eock is a narrow knife-edged ridge, running nearly north and 

 south, and varying in height from 1356 feet near the north end, to 

 only 660 feet at less than a quarter of a mile south of this point. It 

 again rises to 1275 feet at the Signal Station, near the middle of the 

 ridge, and attains its greatest elevation (1396 feet) between this spot 

 and " O'Hara's Tower," which surmounts its southern extremity. 

 Erom here the Eock descends in a series of grand precipices to the 

 " Windmill Hill Elats," some 400 feet above the sea, and again sinks 

 abruptly to Europa Point, which presents a cliff of about 50 feet high 

 to the Straits. Except at "Catalan Bay," where a short sandy beach 

 affords a site for a little village, chiefly inhabited by Genoese fishermen, 

 the east side is quite inaccessible, being a succession of immense slopes 

 of loose sand and gravel, standing at a steep angle, and crowned by 

 vertical walls of rock, or else rising in an unbroken precipice from the 

 waters of the Mediterranean. The west side, although very rugged 

 and in many places quite precipitous, is, on the whole, of a compara- 

 tively easy slope, and several good paths lead to the summit. 



Although the actual height of the Eock is quite insignificant, it 

 can scarcely be surpassed in the striking grandeur of its appearance. 



