THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 279 



or two of the desiderata. It is the only pay I ask, — permission to retain 

 such as are needed for the collection, and I do not consider it excessive. 

 When I say that during the winter months I frequently get half a dozen 

 sendings in one week, and often spend an entire day of ten hours in 

 making determinations, the extent of the labour imposed on me may be 

 estimated. 



I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not object to making 

 determinations ; it is a real pleasure to me to look over a lot of material, 

 especially if in good condition and from a new locality; but I do feel 

 sometimes that my work is not appreciated, and that an insect or two 

 retained for the collection is rated exceedingly high when grumblingly 

 yielded in return. It has occurred to me that where I have spent an 

 hour or two in determining a species as new, and have given its genus, 

 the collector to whom I returned it described it without even crediting 

 me with the generic reference. Nowadays I give no such references. 



Of course there are exceptions to all rules, and so many of my 

 correspondents are liberality itself, giving me absolute disposal of the 

 material sent for study, they will not apply what I have said to themselves, 

 and will, I think, testify that I do not often abuse their confidence. I 

 will repeat, however, that Mr. Heath comes in with the exceptions, and is 

 a persona grata on my list. I cannot promise to be influenced by his 

 protest, but I can recommend him as a very amiable and satisfactory 

 correspondent. 



CATERPILLARS ATTENDED BY ANTS. 



In his paper on "The Food-plants of the Butterflies of the Kanara 

 District of the Bombay Presidency," Mr. L. de Niceville, of Calcutta, 

 states (page 190) that the choice of the food-plant by the butterfly, in 

 the case of many of the Lyaenidce, is largely dependent upon the 

 presence of the particular species of ant with which it lives in harmony in 

 its larval condition. " If the right plant has no ants, or the ants on that 

 plant are not the right species, the butterfly will lay no eggs there. Some 

 larvje will certainly not live without the ants, and many larva? are 

 extremely uncomfortable when brought away from their hosts or masters. 

 In many cases it is just as important for breeding purposes to know the 

 right species of ants as to know the right food-plant. In Kanara this is 

 particularly noticeable in the cases of Castalius ananda, Zesius 

 chrysomallus, Aphnce.us lohita and Catapoecilima elegans. C. ananda 



