64 SPOLIA ZEYLANTCA. 



the night. I noticed that they exhibited a distinct preference 

 for resting on small dead bushes, whose dry and viathered leaves 

 approximated closely in colour to that of the under surface of the 

 butterfly. 



Leaf-nesting Ants. — Trincomali, June 22, 1907. I was much 

 interested to-day in watching the common red tree ants {(Ecoyhylla 

 smaragdina) making a new nest. They were dealing with tw^o 

 separate leaves, one of which they were rolling up transversely, 

 the other one longitudinally, but the process was the same in both 

 cases. The ants laid hold of the edge of the leaf with their jaws 

 and hauled on it until they curved it over, a dozen or twenty 

 working side by side according to the size of the leaf. In some 

 cases the space between the surface of the leaf (on to which they were 

 cUnging to get a grip for their pull) and the edge of the leaf (on to 

 which their jaws were fastened) Avas too great to be spanned by the 

 body of a single ant, and in this case the ant holding on to the edge 

 was gripped in the jaws of another standing on the leaf ; if the two 

 together could not span the gap, the second ant was gripped by a 

 third, so that the middle ant was suspended between the two others 

 without touching the leaf at all. I did not see more than three 

 ants (on two occasions) hauling on to one another like this, and that 

 only in the centre of the leaf where the space was greatest, but in 

 many cases there were two ants, the hindmost taihng on to the fore. 

 But if they could reach the edge themselves, they seemed strong 

 enough to hold it. 



This nest was evidently just being begun. Although, when I 

 repassed it in the evening, the leaf seemed quite rolled up, it was 

 still being held in position by the ants, and no larvae had been 

 brought down to spin it together with their silk. 



Twenty-four hours later the leaf had been sewn up, but was 

 not finished, as the ants had two or three larvae inside still, and 

 seemed to be still engaged on the construction of the nest. 



A scarce Moth. — Capnodes teiraspila seems to be quite a rare 

 moth in Ceylon collections, but it appears to be fairly common 

 at Trincomalee, where I took it in June, 1906, and in the beginning 

 of July, 1907. It is to be found in shady places under trees, where 

 there are plenty of dead leaves, from amongst which it is readily 

 disturbed. 



Behaviour of Frogs when confronted with a Snake. — I have noticed 

 a curious action of the part of some frogs {Rana cyanophlyctis) put 

 into its cage as food for a " Green Keel-back "snake {Macropisthodon 

 plumhicolor). As the snake was moving about, whenever its head 

 came near a frog, the latter raised itself on its legs (whereby the 

 rump was elevated aloft, whilst the head was almost on the ground) 

 at the same time blowing itself out. However, the snake took 

 no notice of the frogs ; it was not hungry at the time, being about 



