248 Mr. John C. W. Kershaw on Spindasis lohita. 
which they generally do in a deserted leaf-nest of the ants ; 
or perhaps the latter kindly vacate their premises on 
purpose.* The nests used for pupation always seem quite 
new, though I have not found any ants actually inside the 
nests containing the pupze; they may make occasional 
visits, however, though my butterflies emerge in good 
condition when the pupz are isolated from ants. No 
doubt the safety of the pupa is well assured from the fact 
of its being concealed in what to all appearance is an in- 
habited ants’ nest; few creatures would willingly disturb 
it, except woodpeckers and some few habitual feeders on 
ants. There is but one fairly common species of wood- 
pecker here, and considering the abundance of large ants’ 
nests everywhere, it is not probable that these birds 
trouble about the small leaf and twig nests occupied by 
Spindasis. The only other animals here, so far as I know, 
which feed largely on ants are the Pangolin or Scaly Ant- 
eater, and the Hoopoe, the former scarce and probably 
feeding only on the ground, and the bird being of rare 
occurrence here. 
The pupa is dark shiny brown and yellow-brown, the 
tip of the abdomen blunt and rounded, and on the under- 
side is a roughened sub-circular patch, furnished with 
microscopic bristles, which aid the adhesion of the s lk by 
which the pupa is affixed to one of the walls of the leaf- 
nest. There is no girdle round the middle. The tubu- 
lures of the larva are represented by two slight scars in 
the pupa. 
The tubulures are really more distinct or conspicuous in 
the young than in the full-grown larve. The young larve 
generally eat away the under-side of the leaves in patches, 
leaving the thin upper skin. 
* Sometimes, if the larva can find a suitable leaf shrivelled into 
a small tube (as the thick, fleshy leaves of the food-plants often are), 
it lines the tube with a loose-textured web and makes its own shelter. 
EXPLANATION OF Pirate XXII. 
[See Explanation facing the PLatE.] 
