396 
EGYPT 
for sailing vessels to make their way up against the stream during 
some part of most days. If it had not been for this prevalent wind 
it is safe to say that Egypt could never have enjoyed its long 
prosperity, not to speak of the fact that its climate would have been 
insufferably hot. 
The Pykamids of GIza, lat. 30° N. 
January 1st—4th. 
Eor me Egypt began and ended at the Great Pyramid. At its 
very base, surely quite indifferent alike to the ambitions of Cheops, 
and the speculations of the Pyramidologists, I found two worker 
ants, Myrmecocystus viaticus, Eabr., one of which ran rapidly over the 
sand, carrying the smaller of the two in its mandibles. On the 
surrounding desert another ant, Aphaenog aster arenaria, Eabr., was 
to be found under stones, or sometimes running over the sand, 
while Monomorium salomonis , Linn., occurred on and about the 
Umbellate, Deverra tortuosa, Desf., a plant also frequented by the 
Lady-bird, Coccinella 11-punctata, Linn.; doubtless they were both 
in pursuit of Aphides, but I made no note of the presence of the 
latter. A stone on the very edge of the desert gave shelter to three 
specimens of the Mutillid, Ephutomma continua, Fabr. 
Turning stones also produced the Weevil, Dicranotropis ( Cleonus ) 
hieroglyphicus, Oliv.; the Heteromera, Ocnera hispida, Eorsk., and 
Mesostena laevicollis, Sol., as well as the Dung-beetle, Onthophagus 
(?) marmoratus, Ealdm., and immature individuals of the Earwig, 
Labidura riparia, Pall. About the roots of such plants as might be 
found upon the desert in mid-winter were several Tentyria glabra, 
Sol. The black, clean-looking Pimelia angulata , Eabr., was occasion¬ 
ally to be seen crawling'; over the sand, but was more common 
among rubbish in the hotel garden. 
In the last-named locality the big Carpenter-bee, Xylocopa 
aestuans, Linn., a female, the yellow Philanthus triangulum, Eabr., 
with its waxy-looking abdomen, also a female; and two females of 
the Eossor, Ammophila tydei, Guill., were taken. The common Beetle, 
Aulacophora foveicollis, Ktist., was to be found in any numbers upon 
vegetable-marrow. Among mixed herbage in the garden I took an 
immature Chrotogonus lugubris, Blanch.; this is an Acridian of the 
sub-family Pyrgomorphinae, which I met with frequently in Egypt. 
On the golf-links I took, under stones, an undetermined Ocnera. 
At Tamarisk flowers on the Nile bank at Giza, I caught in my 
