434 
EGYPT 
induced the numerous Arab guides and hangers-on to sit still and make 
no attempt to catch it. The butterfly returned, as I had expected, more 
than once, and at length settled; there was no longer any question as to 
its identity— Pyrameis cardui ! 
The sole butterfly that I saw on the desert round the Pyramids 
was a Polyommatus baeticus, netted near the Sphinx. 
At the Mena House the wire gratings erected to exclude mosquitos, 
excluded also moths, so that they were a mitigated blessing like the 
Irishman’s well-meant remark to his friend :—“ Faith! Pat, it’s a good 
bhoy that ye are, and may ye be long in your grave before the Divil 
finds out that ye’re dead ! ” 
As a result of the “ blessed ” netting the only moth that reached 
the lights was a common Agrotid. 
In the cultivated land just below the hotel garden Ganoris rapae 
was common, there were also a few Aculeates ; the little Philanthus 
triangulum , the yellow and black Eumenes coarctata, Linn., var. 
mediterranean Podalirius atro-albus, Lepel., and another species near 
to senescens, Lepel. Moreover Coccinella 11-punctata was again in 
evidence. Mrs. Longstaff, when hunting for Mollusca, found a 
Chrotogonus lugubris on the canal bank alongside the Giza Eoad. 
The garden itself, though frequently visited, did not afford much 
variety: a Harpalus was found under a stone; Erodius puncticollis, 
Sol., crawling upon the ground; a Saprinus ; several Myrmecocystus 
bombycinus ; the Mantis, Hierodula bioculata, was taken running on 
the ground under a Eucalyptus tree by day, while Scarabaeus sacer 
was picked up at night. Among the things taken on the wing the 
only species yet named are Elis senilis and a Clerid, of a carnivorous 
genus, Trichodes angustifrons , Abeille (? crabroniformis, Fabr.). 
In the hotel itself Mrs. Longstaff found Opatrum subsulcatum, 
and the Syrphid fly, Catabomba albomaculata, Meig. 
On the Nubian Desert ants are nothing like as numerous, either 
as regards species or individuals, as they are at Biskra, or in South 
Africa, indeed I saw none near Mena save a few Aphaenogaster 
arenaria. 
A female Pompilid was taken at Wild Mignonette (Reseda sp.) a 
little to the south of the Pyramids; the small Scolia interstincta, 
Klug, was found in the desert; Philanthus triangulum occurred in the 
Granite Temple; of Ammophila erminea , Kohl, three females were 
taken settled on the sand with the abdomen held high in the air; 
of Odynerus (?) dautici , Kossi, a female was found on the higher 
desert, and Eumenes nigra near Abu Roash. On the desert near the 
Sphinx I saw a long pale insect flying swiftly close to the sand on 
