CARNIVOROUS BUTTERFLIES CLARK 447 



abundantly supplied instead of " mealy -bug " secretion ; but never- 

 theless Mr. Holland was correct in his suspicion that Liphyra is 

 carnivorous. 



The second butterfly actually known from observation to be car- 

 nivorous was the Indian Spalgis epius. >Vriting in 1890, Mr. 

 Lionel de Niceville recorded that Mr. E. Ernest Green sent him 

 drawings of the larva and pupa of this species from Pundul-oya, 

 Ceylon, and said : '• I have several times reared an insect indis- 

 tinguishable from S. epius from a carnivorous larva that associates 

 with and feeds upon Dactylopius adonidum (the 'mealy-bug' of 

 planters)." 



In January, 1892, Dr. W. J. Holland published an extract from 

 a letter from the Kev. Dr. A. C. Good dated January 19, 1891, in 

 "which the latter noted that he had found the larvai of a butterfly 

 which had been described as Spalgis s-signata by Doctor Holland 

 in November, 1891 {—S. lemolea H. H. Druce), and that he thought 

 the caterpillars must have fed on plant lice. 



In this paper Doctor Holland listed four lycsenids the cater- 

 pillars of which are characterized by carnivorous propensities; 

 these were : 



Feniseca tarquinius. I Spalgis lemolea. 



Spalgis epius. \ Liphyra hrassolis. 



He said further: "I strongly suspect that the larvte of Lach- 

 nociiema and of Euliphyra, mihi, are like the larvae of Spalgis and 

 Feniseca in their food habit." 



In September, 1894, Mr. E. H. Aitken published extended notes 

 on the young stages of Spalgis epius. 



Mr. F. P. Dodd in 1902 published a detailed account of the devel- 

 opment of the remarkable Liphyra hrassolis which lives in the 

 nests of tree ants, feeding on their young. 



In 1903 Mr. F. W. Frohawk remarked that from observations 

 he had made in the year preceding he felt convinced that some 

 connection existed between the larvae of the large blue of England 

 {Lycmna avion) and the common yellow ant {Formica -fiava) be- 

 cause of the preference shown by the butterfly in selecting for the 

 deposition of its eggs thyme plants growing on ant nests. He sus- 

 pected that these larva? might feed in their later stages either on 

 the larv£e or the pupse of the ants, since after the third molt they 

 persistently refuse to remain on the plants and appear to have a 

 tendency to hide in the ground. In 1905 Mr. Frohawk, in company 

 with Mr. A. L. Rayward, found the pupa of this species, and in the 

 following year these two gentlemen dug the full-grown larvaj out 

 of ants' nests. 



