482 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



Although Mr. Frohawk had not yet been able to ascertain the 

 actual food or manner of feeding, he thought that there could be 

 but little doubt that the larvae are tended by the ants {Lasius 

 ■flavus) in the same way that their own larvae are fed from mouth 

 to mouth with the food the ants disgorge. 



In 1915 Dr. T. A. Chairman published further observations on the 

 last stage of the larva of this butterfly. He noted that the majority 

 of European "blues" hibernate as larvrc in their third stage, having 

 in all five stages. Others hibernate as full grown and full fed 

 larva?, others as pupa3, and some as eggs. Each of these habits is 

 adopted by more than one species. 



Lyccuna arion differs from all of these and agrees with no other 

 species in its method of passing the winter. Living on thyme, 

 chiefly the floAvers, it reaches the fourth and last stage some time 

 in or about August, and then goes into hibernation. When it does 

 this it is so small that it is difficult to believe that it does not have 

 at least one more molt in the spring, though this is not the case. 

 The little caterpillar only one-eighth of an inch long grows to its 

 mature dimensions of well over half an inch and correspondingly 

 thick without a change of skin. 



On May 14, 1915, on pulling up plants over a nest of Mynnica 

 scahHnodis var. sahuleti and disturbing the soil at a point close to 

 overhanging heather, etc., a larva of L. anon was found. It seemed 

 to be amongst loose earth that the ants had worked over, and if not 

 actually in the ants' nest was within less than an inch of ground 

 actually occupied by the ants. The larva was found near the sur- 

 face, but precisely where in relation to the ants was not ascer- 

 tained, the earth being broken up before the larva was seen. But 

 it was certainly not in any permanent tunnel or chamber of the 

 ants' nest, but more probably amongst the looser surface material 

 brought up by the ants and not yet consolidated and amongst which, 

 in weakly constructed chambers, the ants disposed of their larvae 

 temporarily on fine warm daj^s. 



The length of the larva was 11 mm., and its thickness about 3 mm. 

 Its color was a pale earthy flesh color with no trace of green any- 

 where, and the impression it gave was that it must be a concealed 

 feeder. 



Unfortunately in the rough process necessary in disturbing plants 

 and soil the larva suffered an injury, so that the hope of discover- 

 ing what it would eat was unavailing. 



There were visible some dark contents of the posterior extremity 

 of the alimentar}' canal shining through the ventral surface; else- 

 where the larva was too opaque to show whether there was any- 

 thing of food material in its interior. The dark mass seen through 



