170 PARASITIC PROTOZOA POUND IN S. AFRICA. 



I have pleasure in thanking the Director and Officers of the 

 Veterinary Research Laboratory at Onderstepoort and Mr. Kirk- 

 patrick, of the Johannesburg Abattoirs, for material. I also wish 

 to thank the Research Grant Board for a grant towards the 

 expenses incurred in these investigations. 



A NOTE ON ORTALIA PALLETS MULS. 



By R. H. T. P. Harris, 



Department of Entomology, Durban. 



Mead July 13, 1921. 



In December, 1919, while searching for Coccidae in the Botanic 

 Gardens, Durban, a cluster of what appeared to be mealy bugs was 

 noticed at the base of a fig tree (Ficus riatalensis) . The insects 

 at first appeared to be attended by numbers of Pheidole punctu- 

 lata, Meyr., an ant very common in and around Durban. A 

 closer examination, however, disclosed the fact that these insects 

 were catching ants in their mandibles, and that they were 

 Coccinellid larvae densely clothed with tufts and filaments of 

 white secretion. 



Many of these larvae have been collected in this neighbour- 

 hood since, either beneath the bark of old logs or below sheets of 

 iron which have been for some time undisturbed, or amongst old 

 rubbish under a tree where the ants had formed a colony. They 

 are usually clustered at the entrance of an ant burrow or in its 

 vicinity, or under some cover below which the ants are numerous. 



An ant on approaching a larva will stop and examine it, 

 stroking the filaments with its antennae. Then, if the ant pro- 

 ceeds to make a closer examination, the head of the larva is sud- 

 denly raised, the ant seized in the powerful mandibles, and its 

 body juices rapidly sucked out, after the manner of an ant lion. 

 When an ant investigates the insect from the rear, the cerci are 

 raised and moved to and fro, the anal protuberances then giving 

 the appearance of a mouth and palpi. Frequently this causes the 

 ant to retire; but sometimes it will tug viciously at the tufts of 

 hair on the sur-anal plate but without in any way injuring the 

 larva. In many cases the larva has been observed to double up 

 its body, so bringing the attacking ant within reach of its jaws, 

 which speedily puts an end to the matter. The larva, after cast- 

 ing aside the empty body of the ant, retracts its head, and applies 

 its flattened body once more to the surface on which it is resting, 

 ready to seize the next inquisitive ant coming within its reach. 



The larvae, though capable of fairly rapid movement when 

 disturbed, spend most of their time clustered in one spot, and do 

 not hunt for food, evidently relying on the ants' natural inquisi- 



