WHEELER— ANT LARV^. 329 



truded, an ant generally soon becomes aware of the fact and will be seen to 

 pay these great attention. I soon noticed that a liquid, often perfectly trans- 

 parent (it looks so on the blue-green ground, probably was pale bluish), is 

 emitted, and that it is greedily drunk up by the ants. Over and over again, 

 with and without a lens, I have seen this issue, and the ants speedily absorb 

 it. Some ants, perhaps hungry or more enterprising than others, would take 

 in a supply from a second caterpillar. If an ant is not satisfied with the 

 quantity given out, she deliberately seizes the protruding parts and gives 

 them a gentle nip, the mandibles can plainly be seen to press upon the juicy 

 flesh ; if the hint is not immediately acted upon a more vigorous squeeze is 

 given, and the tails may be gripped and pressed. This is very comical, the 

 ant's meaning is unmistakable and the caterpillar so thoroughly understands 

 it, too, for a second hint never fails. This hquid, though frequently quite 

 clear, is often mixed with yellowish matter, and at times some jelly-like sub- 

 stance is extruded ; the latter the ants do not care about, for after the mois- 

 ture is licked up this is in their way, and if they have not been imprisoned 

 too long, will seize and tug at it until it comes off, and carry it to a spot set 

 apart for waste matter, such as their own pellets and pupal skins, etc., are 

 kept in. 



Dodd also observed the ants licking and cleaning the caterpillar and 

 the caterpillar cleaning the ants ! When mature the caterpillar leaves 

 the nest, travels to the nearest tree in company with the foraging 

 ants, spins its cocoon in a crevice of the bark and pupates. In about 

 twenty days the moth emerges.^*' 



The second case is the caterpillar of Lycccna orion, which has 

 been recently studied by Chapman (1916, 1916a) and Frohawk 

 (1916) in England. The butterfly lays its eggs on thyme and other 

 plants. On these the larva feeds, and is often attended by ants as 

 it possesses a honey-gland like mariy other larval Lycaenids. When 

 it has reached the third, or last moult it crawls down to the ground 

 and on encountering a foraging worker of Myrmica Icevinodis or 

 scahrinodis hunches up the anterior segments of its body in a singu- 

 lar manner. Frohawk interprets this behavior as a " signal " which 

 induces the ant to seize the caterpillar and carry it into the nest. 



10 When I was in Queensland Dodd generously gave me a fine series of 

 all the stages of this extraordinary insect, together with specimens of its 

 host ant. The latter, which I had previously found regularly nesting in the 

 superficial portions of large, flat termitaria at Koah and Townsville, is not, 

 as Dodd states in his paper, Iridomyrmex purpureus Smith (= delectus 

 Smith), but /. sanguineus Forel. It is smaller and paler than delectus, but 

 every bit as fierce and aggressive. 



