158 
ALGERIA 
as mirage; it is, perhaps, not as well known that, if looked for, 
it may be seen as far from the Great Sahara as the Southampton 
Water and the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. It may even be seen on 
any hot, still day on Woolacombe Sands. 
These oases, which point to water at no great depth below the 
surface, are, and have for ages been, completely cultivated, so that 
their vegetation is practically confined to date-palms, corn, and 
other crops with a few weeds of cultivation; the indigenous flora no 
longer exists to afford pabulum for insects, which are consequently 
confined to a very limited number of species. The cosmopolitan 
Pyrameis cardui was fairly common; Chrysophanus phlaeas was 
seen once; Ganoris rapae and Colias edusa, auct put in an 
occasional appearance, the last-named the more frequently; our 
Mustapha friend Pararge meone was occasionally to be met with. 
A small aromatic Umbellate in a vegetable garden attracted Odynerus 
consobrinus, Osmia Icohlii, Ducke, an unnamed Andrena, and the 
vulgar fly Pristalis tenax , Eabr. In fields of broad-bean both sexes 
of Psithyrus fulvitarsis , Brulle, were common; this bee was also 
found buzzing about mud walls, together with Polistes gallicus , Linn., 
and a number of Odynerus consobrinus; the same bee haunted an 
earth bank which evidently contained its nests. 
Turning over stones in the river-bed not far off brought to light 
a Scorpion, the apterous Heteromeron Adesmia faremonti , Lucas, as 
well as abundance of the gregarious Pachychila impressifrons, Sol., a 
beetle with an extremely hard exo-skeleton. 
In the Chetma Oasis, about five miles to the eastward, a field of 
cultivated vetch yielded, besides Apis mellifica , several specimens of 
Podalirius (?) ambiguus, Per. The widely-distributed moths Nomo- 
phila noctuella, Schiff., and Plutella maculipennis , Curtis ( cruciferarum , 
Zell.), looked homelike enough, but the beetles on the sand close 
by— Pimelia arenaria , Sol., and AJcis spinosa, Eabr. (dead)—gave a 
more exotic tone to the place. The flowers of Cleome arabica, Linn., 
yielded nothing but honey-bees. 
In the famous Jardin Landon but very few additional species 
occurred. The common Cricket Gryllus domesticus, Linn., was 
found upon a path where the Ant Myrmecocystus viaticus , Eabr., was 
busily at work. The lawns provided food and shelter for a few 
Acridians, such as Acrotylus patruelis, Sturm., Stenobothrus bicolor , 
Charp., Epacromia strepens , E. tkalassina ) Eabr., and the Tryxalid, 
Euprepocnemis plorans, Charp. 
In or about the hotel I came across the Ladybird Bulaea lichat- 
schoviiy Hummel, var. pallida , Muls., the Bug Lygaeus pandurus, 
