484 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



On November 20, 1918, Captain Purefoy exhibited a score of home- 

 bred Lyccena ainon, to<:;ether with their pupa cases. He pointed 

 out that the fully fed larvte seldom, if ever, attempted to crawl far 

 away from the ants in order to pupate. Larvae which he had kept 

 both in the nests of Myrmica scahriiiodis and of M. Ucvinodis gen- 

 erally fed in chambers deep down in the nest where the small ant 

 larvae in their last stage are cared for by the workers. 



When the anon larva was fully fed it generally remained where 

 it was among the brood, slowly changing color from a fine ochreous 

 hue to a dead gray white. Six or seven days might elapse before 

 the larval skin was cast. The ants were running over their guest all 

 the time, but never attacked it, even when the fresh pupa Avas at its 

 softest. 



The cremastral hooks would finally lose their hold of the silk pad, 

 and the pupa would lie at the bottom of the little earth chamber. 



When after 24 days or so the imago emerged it had to find its 

 way to the surface through the ant passages. This it never failed 

 to do, and the freshly emerged butterfly would be found during 

 the early morning drying its wings on the herbage growing on the 

 nest. 



The Q^fig of this species, as described by Mr. Frohav/k, is one 

 forty-eighth of an inch in breadth and one-eightieth of an inch in 

 height. It is of a very flattened globular form, sunken in the center, 

 so much so that to the naked eye the operculum appears as a dark 

 central spot. The entire surface is finely and beautifully reticulated 

 with an irregular net work. The color is pale bluish white. 



Some eggs received by Mr. Frohawk from INIr. A. B. Farn on 

 July 9, 1896, hatched on the following dvtj. 



The larva directly after its emergence is exceedingly' small, meas- 

 uring only one thirty-second of an inch. It is rather stout in pro- 

 portion. The segmental divisions are deeply defined, and with a 

 longitudinal dorsal furrow. On the first segment there is a large 

 dorsal darkly colored disk, and a smaller one on the anal segment. 

 The color of the body is pale ochreous yellow, tinged with greenish. 

 On the dorsal surface are longitudinal rows of glassy white ser- 

 rated hairs, placed in two pairs on either side of each segment above 

 the spiracles. The hairs of the dorsal row all curve backwards. 

 The anterior hair on each segment is much the longest, and all have 

 pedestal-like bas^^s of an oliA^e color. The hairs of the subdorsal 

 pair are both short, the anterior curving forwards, the posterior 

 backwards. Below the spiracle, which is black, are three brownish 

 serrated hairs placed in a triangle, all of which project laterally 

 and have dark bases; the central one is very long. Below these, 

 on the first lateral lobe of each segment, is a single simple white 

 hair, and two other similar ones are found on the base of each 

 clasper. 



