CAKNIVOROUS BUTTERFLIES — CLARK 477- 



hinder end of the body and just inside the spiracular line are two 

 horny rounded eminences, one on each side of the mid-dorsal line. 

 From these eminences pointed tubercles are from time to time thrust 

 out, but no dorsal gland was detected. The tubercles appear to 

 represent those of other Lycsenidse, in which, however, they are more 

 externally placed, being just to the outer side of and behind the 

 spiracles of the twelfth segment. 



The head is small in proportion to the size of the larva, and there 

 is a definite neck of sufficient length to enable the head to be thrust 

 forward, or retracted in tortoise-like fashion under the shelter of 

 the carapace. The anus is protected in a similar manner. 



The food of the larvae are little beady coccids ( Stlctococcus 

 sjostedti) found in considerable numbers immobile and firmly fixed 

 to the young shoots of certain plants. These coccids yield a watery 

 secretion much in demand by ants; it is not sweet to the taste, but 

 has an aromatic flavor rather suggestive of turpentine. 



The coccids are usually surrounded by a multitude of ants. The 

 ferocious "tree-drivers" {(Ecophylla) do not eat them, but seem, 

 like the other ants, to visit them for some food material. Mr. Lam- 

 born noted that the ants not only attended the coccids, but ran all 

 over the lycsenid larvae. The ants often roof over a number of the 

 coccids with a thin covering composed of particles of bark and 

 other vegetable debris so as to form a convex chamber which fits 

 down on all sides around the inclosed insects. The chambers are 

 about the size and shape of a half hazelnut, and are tenanted by 

 ants as well as coccids. 



Mr. Lamborn is disposed to think that in some cases lyca^nids 

 find food where these bodies have been, for some stems frequented 

 by the butterflies look as if they had borne the coccids. 



The first caterpillar found, brown in color and resting motionless 

 on the stem, looked so very like one of the ant-constructed chambers 

 that it had a narrow escape from injury, for Mr. Lamborn actually 

 attacked it with scissors under a mistaken impression as to what it 

 really was, his custom being invariably to explore these chambers. 

 Mr. Lamborn records that within a period of 24 hours one larva 

 consumed 12 out of 15 coccids at its disposal, and another 16 out of 

 28, a few basal portions still remaining attached to the stems sup- 

 plied both larvae. He found that the larvae would eat these coccids 

 whatever the plant they happened to be attached to. 



Ltc-ena arion 



In a note published in 1899 Mr. A. B. Farn wrote that he had had 

 experience with the larvae of Lycama arion for some three years, 

 rearing them up to a certain point from the eggs laid by females 



