CAIRO 
433 
An unnamed species of Larinus, a Weevil, was found on the last- 
named plant; it is somewhat cryptic, but its yellow pubescence is 
apt to come off upon the fingers. The common Ladybird, Coccinella 
11-punctata also haunted the Echinops, so it may reasonably be 
assumed that the plant harboured an Aphis, which may have 
attracted the Wasp also. 
The large, conspicuous Nemestrina lateralis , Wied., occurred on 
flowers of Centaurea aegyptiaca , Linn. (This fly was also taken on 
Gezira Island at Lantana flowers.) I also took another Bombylius, 
as yet undetermined. 
Leaf-cutter-bees were fairly numerous at the flowers of Centaurea 
and Behinops, especially the former. The little Megachile flavipes 
was quite common, but I took only one M. mucorea, Friese. I also 
got a Podalirius that comes near to albigena. 
A couple of the swift dust-coated Zophosis complanata were all 
that I saw. The odoriferous carcass of a Jackal gave shelter to a 
Saprinus which is not represented in the British Museum. 
At Abfi Gurab, about six miles south of the Great Pyramid, in a part 
of the ruined brick-work known as “ The Boat of the Sun,” there was 
an evidently urinous spot in the sand, and the rain of the day before 
caused it to emit a strong ammoniacal odour. This proved very 
attractive to Hymenoptera, and in a very short time I captured three 
Chrysis fasciolata, a Megachile flavipes, and a number of M. mucorea , 
all females. With these was a Bee with a conspicuously red abdo¬ 
men, Paracoelioxys rufiventris, Spin., of which Mr. Morice wrote 
to me (December 9th, 1909) :—“ P. rufiventris, I believe, since Spinola 
described it, has only been found once (by myself and Schmiedeknecht) 
—sitting on the Great Sphinx! You have also its host, Megachile 
mucorea , which we discovered on the same occasion, both host and 
parasite in considerable numbers.” 
Late one lovely moonlight night I explored the interior of the 
Pyramid of Chephren, and at the bottom of the descending passage, 
105 feet from the entrance, found an Ocnera hispida crawling on the 
floor. One day at Oxford, Dr. Dixey, talking to a group of entomo¬ 
logists in my hearing said, “ Cardui, oh! that is the sort of thing that 
you would expect to find on the top of the Pyramid, and if any¬ 
one ever does discover the North Pole he will probably find a worn 
specimen of cardui hybernating upon it.” I have not yet visited 
the North Pole, and should scarcely hope to find cardui there if I 
were foolish enough to direct my steps in that direction, but not very 
long before the conversation in question, I did go up the Great Pyramid, 
and as I reached the top a butterfly flew off. With some difficulty I 
2 F 
