CARNIVOROUS BUTTERFLIES CLARK 491 



the under side of the leaves of a frangipanni I saw a number of small 

 clirysalids which bore a most absurd resemblance to a human face. 

 1 found a few of the larvae still unchanged. Their color Avas dark 

 brownish. * * * The body was all covered over with a whitish 

 substance not a part of the body, and which I took to be the remains 

 of plant lice with which the underside of the leaves on which the 

 larva; were found abounded. I think that these caterpillars must 

 have fed upon these white plant lice, for I could not detect that they 

 had eaten the leaves. * * * The chrysalis is attached to the leaf 

 bj' the back of the head, and presents to view in a wonderful way 

 the face of a man or a chimpanzee. Especially do the eyes and the 

 well-marked brows oA'erhanging them present a startling resemblance 

 to the human face. The natives notice it, and are surprised at the 

 resemblance as much as I am. Here is mimicry, but to what possible 

 purpose ? Or has Dame Nature for once laid aside her usually prac- 

 tical character and decided to amuse herself ? " 



Mr. W. A. Lamborn, writing at Oni Camp in southern Nigeria, 

 said in a note dated September 17, 1911, that he had now found an- 

 other kind of lycsenid larva, perhaps Spalgis lemolea, consorting 

 with aphids or tiny coccids, on the under side of leaves. He saw 

 several of these butterflies near the tree in the clearing, but did not 

 make out "" Avhy they come there in the face of a strong breeze which 

 is now blowing almost constantly." On October 3 he wrote that all the 

 larvae were found among coccids on a shrub in Oni clearing. Each 

 larva bore a covering of gray material, which looked to him as if it 

 were composed of cast skins of coccids, and he thought that they 

 must have eaten these or their products, for they did not eat leaves. 

 He was told that the plant on which they were is a species of Croton, 

 but he rather doubted it. The larvse were all found on the under 

 side of leaves and always among the coccids. 



Mr. Lamborn found the larvae of this species feeding on two 

 species of coccids which were determined as Dactylopius virgatus 

 var. madagasca7'iensis and D. lo7igispinus. He had repeatedly ex- 

 amined the coccids without detecting the larvae, and it was only his 

 attempt to find a particulai'ly large coccid for examination that led 

 him to turn one over and to discover it to be lepidopterous. 



The larvae of this species did not strike him as being much larger, 

 than the coccids on which they feed, for they are rather flattened and 

 usually nestle up closely to the masses of coccids under what appears 

 to be a common covering of shed cuticles, etc. It is sometimes really 

 quite difficult to distinguish them. The coccids are so closely packed 

 and so well covered that one can rarely see the form of a single in- 

 dividual. It is quite common to see tiny coccids wandering in the 

 material on the back of the larvae. 



