CARNIVOROUS BUTTERFLIES — CLARK 443 



furnished at its head Avith a brush of long particolored hairs as long 

 as itself. These hairs open out into a rosette, and the tentacle is 

 whirled around with immense rapidity, producing a most curious 

 effect. 



ANT RESISTANT LYC^NID CATERPILLARS 



The bark-feeding lycaenid caterpillars are without the glands giv- 

 ing out a sweet secretion. They are hairy and look more like the 

 young of moths than like those of butterflies. They frequent ant- 

 infested trees, living in the midst of passing swarms of ants, pro- 

 tected by them, but avoided by them, and giving nothing in return 

 for their protection. 



"ELECTRIC" LYC^NID CATERPILLARS 



In Nigeria Mr. Charles O. Farquharson found two sorts of lycsenid 

 larvae feeding on the flowers of the mistletoe {Loranthns) to be 

 " electric." 



He wrote that these larvae are of very characteristic shape, rather 

 molluscoid or limacoid than onisciform, though they are smooth 

 except at the margin, which is minutely bristly, doubtless to protect 

 the feet. The " carapace ", besides, comes right down so that the 

 feet are not visible. In section the larvie are more or less triangular. 

 The posterior part is bilobed, and in one of the species there are 

 little lobes anteriorly. They have tubercles, exserted very rarel}^, 

 but if they have a gland it is hard to see. They are not ant-attended. 

 They are relatively large, so that it is possible to lift them between 

 the finger and thumb toward the anterior end without the skin of 

 the fingers coming in contact with the marginal fold. 



In handling one of these Mr. Farquharson was conscious of a 

 curious sensation in his finger and thumb, which he found difficult 

 of description. As nearly as possible it reminded him a very faint 

 electric shock, not accompanied by a prickly sensation, but rather as 

 if one were tickled by a tiny bunch of slightly strong bristles. The 

 sensation was not that of tickling so much as that of a faint shock 

 which was not continuous but rapidly intermittent. 



The skin of the larva is covered with yellow dots, verj^ minutie 

 and scarcely visible to the unaided eye, like glandular dots on a leaf. 

 Mr. Farquharson says that, so far as he can make out there is nothing 

 on the larval epidermis that could scratch the hand. On putting 

 the larva down there was no after sensation as there would be after 

 stinging. 



According to Mr. Farquharson Tanuetheira tlmon is the species 

 with the most markedly " electric " caterpillars, but the larvae of 

 Epaniera farquharsonl are slightly " electric " also. 



