50 J ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1925 



Mr. Laniborn sa^Y the llrst larva he discovered passin<^ its iiioutii 

 to arid fro over tiny homopterons larvae as if it might be obtaining 

 food, and he frequently saw the ants feed it Avith material o})(ained 

 from the insect larvie- An ant and a caterpillar stand in front of 

 each other mouth to mouth. Some jerky movements take place, 

 the ant stroking the larva with its antennae after the manner of an 

 (E cophyUa ant which, having stored itself with water, proceeds to 

 dispense it to its fellows. 



After writing these notes he speculated as to whether he might not 

 /lave been mistaken in thinking that the ants fed tlie larvte. He 

 suggested that perhaps the position is reversed, and it is the larva 

 that provides the ants with food, possibly buccal secretion or regurg- 

 itated material, since it has no dorsal gland. 



AVhen he first had the larva it did not feed, as far as he could see, 

 for 24 hours unless the ants gave it food, but it then ate a number 

 of the jassids. 



He suggested that these carni\orous larvae when they find a 

 colony of food insects have to make as big a meal as they can so 

 as to be prepared against a possible long wait before tiiey find 

 others. 



Mr. Charles O. Farquharson found a few larvne of this species, 

 with a very large number of membracicls and a much larger num- 

 ber of ants, on a small leguminous shrub {Cassia alata) at the 

 base of a palm. The larvae, so far as he could see, are without 

 honey glands or tubercles. They are rather bristly, with the head 

 protected by the usual carapace. The color is a curious blend of the 

 membracid color, with additions. In appearance they reminded him 

 very much of certain large syrphid larvte which he had seen eating 

 aphids, and the latter resembled bird droppings more than any- 

 thing else. The young larvae are rather more bristly than the older 

 ones, and less pronouncedly onisciform. 



These larvae made no attempt to eat the membracids, and the rela- 

 tion between the lycaenid larvae and the membracids was with the 

 larval stage of the latter, wdiich he saw as clearly as possible. 



The lycaenid larvae are very sluggish in their movements, and all 

 the time he remained hardly moved an, inch. Whenever a membracid 

 larva came near it got busy, and so did the ants. They all got busy 

 in the same quarter, which was the upturned retrousse end of the 

 abdomen from which, at fairly rapid intervals, a short process was 

 thrust out on the tip of which a clear droplet was simultaneously 

 visible and instantaneously mopped up by the most enterprising of 

 the suitors, which was generally the lycamid in virtue of its super- 

 ior size. Along with one or two ants it tickled with its anterior true 

 legs the business end of the membracid, but by lolling in a gross and 



