﻿298 LÉPIDOPTÉROLOGIE COMPARÉE 



" I never saw any direct attack, but the ants seemed to me 

 to carry them about far too much, lugging them from chamber 

 to chamber and dumping them down, falling down with them 

 from the walls of the nest, etc. " 



When sent to Mr. Donisthorpe, the larvae ail seemed to me 

 to be in good and proper condition, and the majority must cer- 

 tainly hâve been so. 



Scftcmber içih IQ18. Placed a larva of L. alcou m an 

 unoccupied corner of an observation nest of Myrmica laevinodis. 

 When, in a few minutes the disturbance brought the ants to the 

 spot, the ants ran ovcr it, a few examined it for a second or so 

 with their antennae and passed on. The L. alcon larva, however, 

 almost as soon as the ants came to it, bunched itself up in the 

 L. arion manner, the head being close to the third pair of legs 

 and the thoracic segments much swollen, so that the incisions 

 were stretched and showed a smooth and paler area. The ants, 

 however, took no g'reater notice than immediately before. A few 

 minutes later, the ants ceased to bustle about so much and 

 shortly one ant took more notice of the L. alcon larva, licking 

 it over, especially the thorax; it never approached the honey 

 gland région, it had approached it from the head end. After 

 about half a minute, it desisted, withdrew, and cleaned its legs 

 and antennae, and then disappeared amongst the other ants. 

 In less than a further minute, an ant, I hâve no doubt the same 

 one, came in a business like way, got behind the L. alcon larva, 

 scized it between the thorax and abdomen and carried it off. 

 It made no preliminary examination, but did this at once; a 

 fresh ant would certainly hâve spent some time in examining 

 the larva. No ant got any honey from the L. alcon. 



This observation shows that my failure to see such a scène 

 before, was somehow due to my default, and not due to 

 L alcon not behaving like L. arion as I erroneously concluded. 



