THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 133 



they will remove all the chrysalids and bury them lower down. When 

 the butterfly is ready to emerge, which is in about six or seven days, it is 

 tenderly assisted to disengage itself from its shell, and should it be strong 

 and healthy, it is left undisturbed to spread and strengthen its wings and 

 fly away. But if, by any mischance, it emerges deformed and too 

 crippled to use its wings, a catastrophe occurs. In one case, a butterfly 

 had fallen to the ground before its opening wings had dried, and one of 

 the soldier-ants tried to rescue it. He carried it back to the tree with 

 the utmost care, and made several attempts to assist the butterfly to hold 

 on again. Finding his efforts unavailing, he left the cripple for a short 

 time to recover itself On his return, seeing no improvement, he 

 appeared to lose patience, and, rushing in, bit off both the deformed wings 

 at the base, and carried off the wingless body into the nest below, whether 

 as food for the community or for what other purpose I was unable to 

 ascertain. That was the only occasion on which I ever saw any high- 

 handedness on the part of the ants, though their usual ill-temper requires 

 no very close observation to detect. 



It is a curious sight to watch the fragile and delicate newborn butter- 

 flies wandering about, all feeble and helpless, amongst the busy crowd of 

 coarse, black ants, and rubbing shoulders in perfect safety with the ordi- 

 nary fierce big-headed soldiers ; as odd a contrast as the fresh creamy 

 whiteness of the opening wing, the flash of purple and blue, and the 

 sparkle of green and silver eyes is to the darkness and dinginess of their 

 queer home. For some time after the butterflies have gained strength to 

 fly away, they remain hovering over the nest. A larva of a species of 

 Catopsilia [one of the Pierinse, or " Whites,"] I threw down as an exper- 

 ment, was immediately set upon and torn to pieces in a second by the ants. 



I took a T. theophrastus larva from a tree, and introduced it on the 

 pathway of another company of the same species of ants who lived in our 

 verandah, but kept no " farm," and it was odd to see the ants come 

 tumbling out headlong to fight the intruder, and the sudden way they 

 cooled down on investigation of the foe ; none attempted to harm him, and 

 he was politely escorted across their boundary, the ants running alongside, 

 and feeling him all over with their antennae. This must have been in- 

 stinct, as they could have no former knowledge of him as a " milk-giver." 

 The dead chrysalids in an ants' nest are carefully removed and thrown 

 away outside ; the ants also distinguish between the dead and living. 



