164 
ALGERIA 
A. nigroaenea , Kirby; several specimens of Colletes coriandri ; three 
Chalicodoma nasidens, Latr.; four C. sicula, Rossi, and two of another 
Chalicodoma to which the late Mr. Ed. Saunders failed to assign a 
name. Besides these there were on the Betama blossoms solitary 
males of Dioxys chalicoda, Lucas, and Podalirius calcaratus , Lepel., 
and I found, settled on the sand, a male of the Eossor Notogonia 
argyropyga , Kohl. 
It was at the foot of these sandhills that I took a single 
Mditaea didyma , Esp., f. deserticola , 0berth., flying rapidly yet sug¬ 
gesting a small Acrnea. Here also a thin whip-like, sand-coloured 
Snake some two feet long came towards me with a darting motion. 
It is the only time that I have seen a snake approach me, perhaps, 
however, I got between the reptile and its abode. After a hot chase 
it disappeared down a hole under a large plant of Limoniastrum . A 
Biskra dealer in curiosities, who seemed to be somewhat of a 
naturalist, declared that these snakes fly through the air " comme une 
fleche” and certainly my animal gave quite that impression. 
Another sandy region, locally known as The Dunes, affords a 
good collecting ground. It lies about five miles south-south-west of 
Biskra on the Oumache road. Here, where sheets and ridges of 
loose sand alternate with tufts of vegetation, the following Beetles 
turned up : Graphipterus multiguttatus , three captured by Mr. R. T. 
Dssher, also two by myself at the roots of Limoniastrum , together 
with a specimen of Erodius elegans , Kra.; Adesmia faremonti , one 
taken by Mr. Ussher; Zophosis approximata; Erodius bicostatus, three; 
Cleonus hieroglyphicus, Oliv., and Sepidium reguieni, the last three all 
found at the foot of slopes of running sand which they were unable 
to climb. The exo-skeleton of the Cleonus turned the points of several 
pins ! The Cetoniid Oxythyrea stietica , Linn., together with Tentyria 
sp., occurred on the flowers of the Spurge. Suleiman found on the 
bare sand two Scarabaeus puncticollis and one Anthia sex-maculata. 
At the foot of a clump of rushes growing on the sand I found a 
populous nest of the electro-plated Myrmecocystus bombycinus. The 
most attractive flowers were those of the Euphorbia guyoniana which 
yielded, besides Honey-bees and numerous 7-spot Ladybirds, the 
Bugs, Lygaeus pandurus and Brachypelta aterrima , Forster; the 
Flies, Syrphus corollas , Fabr., and Catabomba albomaculata , Macq. 
With these were the following Bees: Andrena ephippium , two 
females; A. nigroaenea , with its var. nigrosericea; a stylopized 
specimen of A. rosae , Panz., var. trimmer ana, Kirby; Colletes coriandri , 
and Ralictus (?) malachurus , Kirby, a female. 
On March 1st I went by rail to El Otjtaia, some ten miles north 
