THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



him to subject them to a more powerful glass than any I had, and give me 

 the result. He presently (ioth July) wrote : " Mr. Peck and myself have 

 both carefully examined the larvae for the gland which you thought might 

 exist on the abdomen (nth segment), but we find none. . . But why did 

 you not speak of the two processes near the hind end of the body and suggest 

 that these might be secretory organs ? If the ants really obtain some 

 sweet matter from the larvae, then these are the organs through which it is 

 emitted. They could hardly have escaped your notice, as they are visible 

 to the naked eye, and distinctly under the magnifyer. They are two 

 short cylindrical projections, of perhaps twice the length of their 

 diameter, giving out at their tops twenty or more barbed hairs. I could 

 not determine whether these hairs covered the entire top, but I rather 

 thought that they proceeded from a fissure extending across it, which 

 perhaps could be dilated or contracted at will." 



On reading this I at once made an excursion for more larvae (now 

 13th July, and the flowers fast disappearing), and was fortunate in finding 

 half a dozen. I also captured two of the ants and confined them with 

 larvae in a glass ; so kept them for two days, examining them repeatedly. 

 The ants were not restive under confinement, but devoted themselves to 

 the larvae, being almost all this time near them, going from one to 

 another, at intervals operating after the manner before described. But at 

 the end of the second day, getting impatient at the decrease or with- 

 holding of the object they sought, and making no allowance for the 

 deficient food and untoward circumstances of the larvae, they began 

 viciously to bite and mangle them, and I was forced to conclude my 

 observations and save any unhurt subjects in alcohol. All this time I was 

 unable to discover the organs to which Mr. Lintner had called my atten- 

 tion. I was more certain, however, that whatever the ants were after came 

 from the last three segments, and they constantly returned to the nth. I 

 had to regret that my attention had not been called to the whole matter a 

 few weeks earlier. 



But I sent one of the larvae obtained 13th inst. to Mr. Lintner, and 

 he wrote me thus on the 16th : "The larva came safely, but has since 

 died from want of proper food. We could not find the organs on it of 

 which I wrote you. They were not visible. After its death I discovered 

 one, and by means of pressure disclosed the other. In the latter the 

 armature of hairs was not thrown out, but I could discover them within 

 the organ. 1 think they will prove to be excretive." 



