rr 
: 
8 LYCANID. 
larger thanin any other Zycenide larve known to me, while the third organ described below 
is entirely absent. This latter organ consists of an oval opening on the dorsal line of the 
eleventh segment with lips like a mouth; these lips can, at the will of the larve, be some- 
what protruded, and a drop of sweet liquid exuded. On the twelfth segment are two other 
organs, one on each side, in the subdorsal region. In Cwuretis, whick does not possess the 
mouth-like organ on the eleventh segment, these two organs are of very great size and are 
much more developed than in any other Zycenide larve known to me. Each organ consists 
of a tall “pillar” as described above, from which, when the larva is touched or frightened, is 
instantly protruded a long tentacle furnished at its head with a brush of long parti-coloured hairs 
as long as itself; these hairs open out into a rosette, and the tentacle is whirled round with 
immense rapidity producing a most curious effect. I believe the Cwretis larve use their 
tentacles solely to frighten away their enemies, the worst of which are Ichneumon flies. 
I think it probable that these organs were first developed, and the mouth-like opening on 
the eleventh segment came into existence at a later date. This latter organ with its sweet-tasting 
liquid exudation is greatly affected by ants of very many different species, who in return 
for the food they obtain from the larvee act as their most efficient guardians. I have found 
as many as four species of ants attending one species of larva. Ant-tended larvee are most 
easily found by looking for the ants ; the larve are usually coloured like the leaves, buds, 
flowers, and seed-pods on which they feed, and are for other reasons not easily seen, but 
the restless red or black-coloured ants are very conspicuous. Cwuretis larve are not attended 
by ants and have not the organon the eleventh segment, whence the necessity of having the 
organs on the twelfth segment in a highly developed condition. In other larvz which are 
attended by ants the organs on the twelfth segment are smaller than in Cwretis, and are, I 
believe, gradually aborting, because, as far as I can see, the ants having constituted 
themselves their defenders, there is no further use for them for defence, but Mr. Edwards 
possibly correctly surmises that in their aborted condition they serve as signals 
to the ants to examine the eleventh segment for the sweet fluid to be emitted by the larve. 
M. Guenée, in 1867, appears to have been the first* to discover these organs, which 
he found in Polyommatus beticus, Linnzeus, and he described and figurea them. But little 
notice was taken of the discovery till Mr. W. H. Edwards rediscovered them, and, in “The 
Canadian Entomologist,’’ vol. x, p. 1 (1878), gave a long account of the organs as found 
in Lycena (Cyaniris) pseudargiolus, Boisduval and Leconte, a North-American butterfly, 
with a woodcut of the posterior end of the larva. This account he greatly supplemented in 
the second volume of his superb work ‘‘ Butterflies of North- America,” in which much addi- 
tional information is given. Mr. W. Doherty (Journ. A. S. B., vol. lv, pt. 2, p. 112, 1886) has 
recorded some interesting observations on the same subject, as also has Mrs. Wylly (Journ. 
Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. iii, p. 164, 1888). Not only do the ants attend the larvae 
from their very first and smallest stages (I have found ants attending larve of Xapala 
schistacea, Moore, only an eighth of an inch long) till they are full grown, but they often 
cause the larve to change to pup within their nests, in this manner protecting them from 
harm from the time they emerge as minute caterpillars from the egg to the hour they assume 
the perfect form and fly away. Indian collectors should devote at least some of their time 
and attention to finding out and recording the transformations of the Zycenide especially, 
and should note if the larvee are attended or not by ants, and, if so, by what species of ants ; 
also whether or no they possess the special organs described above. The tentacula or 
osmeteria found on the second segment in the dorsal line in all larvze of the subfamily 
Papilioning appears to be used for the same purpose, zz. to frighten away enemies 
as are the exsertible organs present in some Zycenide larvee on the twelfth segment as above 
described. In the Pufpiionine, however, they appear to be scent organs or osmeteria as well. 
Ree Oe ee ee TS 2 eee 
* Since the above was written I find that Mr. Scudder writes : “These curious appendages [on the twelfth 
segment] were first observed by Petzhold, and the attraction to ants of the central gland found upon the seg- 
ment in front was first noted by Esper.” (Butt of Kast. United States, p. 15.) 
