Sonnini de Manoncourt, Charles Nicolas Sigisbert: Travels in upper and lower Egypt (Band 1) (London, 1807)

an"d lower egypt. 371

These large crickets are very common in the
sands which I traversed ; they fly better and to a
greater distance than the other insects of the same
species, and it is not easy to catch them.

The third insect which I found in the same de-
sert, on the brink of a little bason of rain water,
was an aquatic scorpion, hepa or nepa. Its an-
tenna?, if, indeed, we ought to regard as anten-
nas, parts which have a greater resemblance to
claws, are in the form of the nippers of crabs. It
has but one joint on each tarsus. The eyes are
very large and black. The abdomen, extremely
flattened, is terminated by two appendages in form
of a forked tail. The wings are blackish ; the in-
sect is yellow in every other part. Little length-
ened eggs, pointed, and of a bright red, were at-
tached by one of their extremities to the belly of
this individual.

Finally, the fourth species was a searabeus, eight
lines in length. The antennae were in a knot like
leaves, and the head broad and flattened in front;
it formed a projecting plate on its summit, by two
small points, and by other little advancing points
on its anterior border. The corselet was broad,
bordered, and shining on the half of its length,
and rough as shagreen through the remainder. A
shield between the sheaths; these were striped
with little points hardly discernible; the body was,
b b 2 convex