C 75 ) 



IV. Butterflies of the Lebanon. By Mary De la Beche 

 Nicholl, F.E.S., with a Preface and Notes ly 

 Henry John Elwes, F.R.S, F.L.S., etc. 



[Read November 21st, 1900.] 



[Mrs. Nicholl lias asked me to examine the butterflies 

 which she collected in Syria, and to make some remarks on 

 them. I have done this very imperfectly, because the Syrian 

 butterflies are worse represented in my collection than 

 those from most parts of the Palsearctic region, and indeed 

 seem to be less known. Except the species which have 

 been collected by Zach near Beyrout, and those which Mr. 

 Leech procured through a native collector, ten or twelve 

 years ago, from North Syria, no list or account of which has 

 been published, few Syrian butterflies have reached England. 

 Consul Paulus of Jerusalem has printed privately a list of 

 Palestine Lepidoptera, and Freiherr von Kalchberg has in 

 Iris X, p. 1G1, published a list of Lepidoptera from Haifa ; 

 but no one apparently had made a systematic attempt at 

 collecting in the higher parts of the Lebanon until Mrs. 

 Nicholl went there. I have received a small collection, sent 

 by Prof. Day of Beyrout, to Miss Sharpe, which contains 

 several species that Mrs. Nicholl did not find, and I have no 

 doubt that there are more to be discovered in the higher 

 northern parts of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. Dr. 

 Staudinger has described briefly in the new edition of his 

 catalogue several varieties from Syria and the Lebanon, but I 

 do not know from whom they were procured, and a much 

 larger series than I possess is necessary to enable me to 

 identify some of the Lycenidae found by Mrs. Nicholl as 

 certainly as I should wish. The following notes must be 

 considered therefore as provisional only, and if I am able 

 to carry out my intention of visiting the Lebanon this year, 

 I shall hope to make a complete list of the Syrian 

 butterHies later. — H. J. Elwes.] 



Very little is known of the butterflies of Syria. A 

 catalogue exists of Lepidoptera taken by the German 

 Consul, near Jerusalem ; and another, printed by Ledcrer, 

 enumerates the Lepidoptera taken by Franz Zach fifty 

 TRANS. ENT. SOC. LONI). 1901. — PART I. (APRIL) 



