THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



one of the larvae on this plant eating an opened flower, but they destroy 

 the buds extensively, and on examining any of the spikes many buds will 

 be found drilled, though often no larva is seen upon it. This disappear- 

 ance of the larva I attribute principally to ^spiders, as I found many of 

 them on the plants. 



I very soon noticed Jhat ants also'frequented the spikes and supposed 

 that the honey-sweet flowers drew them, but presently saw an ant running 

 up and down the back of one of the larvae, drumming and gesticulating 

 with its antennae, and was surprised to find that the larva, though feeding, 

 did not seem in the least disturbed at the treatment, neither withdrawing 

 its head from the bud nor wincing in the body. It evidently knew well 

 who was treating it so familiarly. Had it been touched by an ichneumon 

 fly or had such an insect approached it nearly without touching, it would 

 have displayed alarm instantly. A little farther search showed other ants, 

 and sometimes several of them, busy about other larvae, running from one 

 to another on different parts of the spike and always repeating the same 

 drumming motions, stopping often to lick the surface, as it seemed to me, 

 and the presence of ants became a sure indication of larva; and saved me 

 much trouble in searching for the latter. 



The next day I* went to the wood with my hand glass and watched for 

 a long time to see what the ants sought. The first day I had seen two 

 species of ants engaged, each of medium size, but I now found a third 

 and very small species operating in the same manner, and in one case six 

 of these were busy over one larva. But the movements of all the species 

 were similar. They ran up and down and across the bodies of the larvae, 

 working their antennae violently, keeping their mandibles close to the 

 -surface, which they often stopped for an instant to lick. The whole upper 

 side of this larva is covered with little glassy stellar processes, five or six 

 rayed, scarcely raised, and from the centre of each springs a short fila- 

 mentous spine. Where the surface is white these processes are white, but 

 on the dark spots they are dark, and on these last they seemed to be less 

 regularly stellate. The ants attended most diligently to the last two or 

 three segments, and especially to the back of the nth, but they certainly 

 licked the surface at the junction of these segments and elsewhere along 

 the body towards the head. I thought there might be some exudation 

 from the surface, and perhaps from the stellar processes, as I saw no 

 special organs for excreting. 

 ?$ Some of these larvae I sent to Mr. Lintner. at Albany, N. Y.,- asking 



