CARNIVOROUS BUTTERFLIES CLARK 505 



bug {Arilus crlstatus) which up to that time I had not noticed. It 

 dropped at once into my box apparently quite dead. Mr. Oiiarles 

 O. Farquharson wrote that in Southern Nigeria he saw one of the 

 brown hairy moth-like caterpillars of the lichen-feeding lyca^nid 

 Eyitola honoHus attacked and killed by a reduviid bug {SpJiedano- 

 lestes, sp.). 



Associates of the caterpillars. — On the alders two others insects 

 are commonly found with the larva? feeding on the aphids, and some- 

 times a third. Most common is the larva of a lace-winged fly 

 {Hormosoma.) sp.), which is about the size of a full-grown aphid. 

 This creature has the habit of covering its back with aphid wool 

 and skins so that if it remains quiet it is scarcely to be distinguished 

 from them. It is, however, rather active, and as the aphids are quite 

 inert anything that resembles an aphid running about is to be re- 

 garded with suspicion. Examination with a glass will reveal the 

 two enormous mandibles characteristic of the lacewing larva. I 

 have never seen this insect attack a caterpillar. 



Almost as common as the young lacewings are the grayish headless 

 and legless grubs of a syrphid fly {Syrphus, sp.). These lie under 

 the aphids, often in a web made by the caterpillars, and are difficult 

 to find. According to Miss Morton these grubs stick the wool from 

 the aphids on their own backs and are often difficult to detect. When 

 fully grown they are frequently naked and are then quite conspic- 

 uous. Miss Morton relates that she watched a little caterpillar just 

 out of the egg spinning a web close to and almost under a large 

 syrphid grub, so she supposes that these grubs do not injure the 

 caterpillars. The little caterpillar crawled under the mouth of the 

 grub and over its back without the least notice being taken by it. 

 Miss Morton noticed that these syrphid grubs devour the aphids far 

 faster than do the caterpillars. 



The ants take not the slightest notice of the young lacewings nor 

 of the syrphid grubs, even though the latter are much more destruc- 

 tive than the caterpillars against which they display so much 

 ferocity. 



Lachnocnema bibulus 



The larva of this species is much like that of Megalopalpus. It 

 has no glandular apparatus. Mr. Lamborn found that although it is 

 protected by coarse hairs the ants certainly treat it with more 

 consideration than they show toward Megalopalpus., and in one 

 case he gained the impression that they were endeavoring to feed 

 it in spite of its habit of preying on their homopteron proteges. 



The food of this species is the jassid Ossana hicolor, in every 

 case fomid on similar food plants. 



