490 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



])iit them in a \)\\\ box ^\ itli a supply oi their prey, and in a few daj^s 

 the prey had disap})eared and the larvie had become pupa}. In a 

 fortnifrht. exactly twice the time recjuired by the smaller Lyca?nidaj 

 generally, five specimens of Spalgis epius emerged. 



Mr. Aitken was very much surj^rised at his discovery, for he did 

 not then know that any butterfly larvae were carnivorous, except 

 when they indulged in cannibalism and ate each other as Lyctenid^e 

 often do. 



When he found his specimens he was traveling in haste through 

 a very wild part of the country, so he put the pupaj away without 

 examining them. Later he obtained two more. On examining them 

 Avith a lens what was his astonishment to find a face totally different 

 from that presented by the African species {S. lemolea) but even 

 more lifelike and expressive. Ears were wanting, but every other 

 feature was there. The abdominal portion of the pupa formed the 

 forehead, two gleaming black spots, exactly in the right place, made 

 a most malignant pair of eyes, the arched thorax w'as the nose, the 

 effect of which was heightened by its being almost black at the 

 muzzle, and the head, with its attachment to the thorax, formed the 

 chin and lips. 



Mr. Aitken says that no descrij^tion can convey any idea of the 

 way in which the contour, features, and expression are worked out, 

 and he is afraid that the figure on his plate will be regarded as 

 overdone. To this he can only reply that it is underdone. 



In Ce3'lon Mr. E. Ernest Green on more than one occasion found 

 the caterpillars of this species inside the nests of a tree ant {Cre- 

 mastogaster- dohrni) feeding on the "mealy-bugs" {/^actyJophis^ 

 sp.) inclosed therein. 



Spalgis epius is found in Burma and the ]\Iergui Archipelago, 

 throughout India, and also in Ceylon. In the Kottawa Forest at 

 Galle, Ceylon, it is very common and easy to capture, frequenting 

 shady places and high jungle. Elsewhere, while it really can not be 

 called rare, it does not seem to be common. 



Besides the following from Africa there arc about half a dozen 

 additional species of Spalgis occurring from Hainan southward 

 through the Malayan Islands to the Moluccas. Presumably all of 

 these are carnivorous in their younger stages. 



Spalots lemolea 



On January 10. 1891, the Rev. A. C. Good wrote to Dr. ^\. J. 

 Holland from Kangwe, on the Ogove River, "West Africa: "To-day 

 I stumbled upon the queerest object which I think I ever saw. On 



