460 Mr. W. A. Lamborn on the 
“ Jan. 18,.1912. In the course of a further search for 
Lycaenid larvae I have obtained two of the same species 
which are carnivorous and prey on active jumping Homo- 
ptera, which they lull toa false sense of security by simulat- 
ing the attentions of ants. The history of my discovery is 
as follows. On Jan. 14 I found, on a young leaf of the 
plant Musanga smithu, R.Br. (Urticaceae), a small Lycaenid 
larva brown in colour and studded all over with tubercles. 
A number of the small black ants, since determined as 
Pheidole aurwillia x. kasaiensis, were running about over 
the leaf, on the underside and margins of which they had 
built up shelters of waste vegetable matter, such as they 
construct so frequently over Stictococcus sjéstedti and other 
Coceids. 
“On cutting off the leaf with a view to making a closer 
examination, I shook it, with the result that several tiny 
insects, since described as the Jassid Nehela ornata, 
Dist. (see p. 519), left the shelters and jumped to a distance 
in all directions. I did not at the time attach any definite 
significance to the presence of these insects; but the larva 
would not feed in captivity. I offered it a fresh branch 
of the plant on which it had been, and when it refused 
this I tried it with maimed ants, Aphidae, Stictococcr, and 
the larvae of Membracidae, for I could not find any more of 
the Jassids near which it had been discovered. On Jan. 16, 
however, I came across another cluster of ant-tended 
Jassids of the same species on the stem of a different 
plant, and at rest close to them was a similar larva over 
which the ants were running. I then felt that the associa- 
tion must be more than accidental, so I cut the stem through 
and transferred it to a glass tube. Most of the Homoptera 
managed to evade capture by jumping off, but I secured 
three which soon gathered together again on the stem. 
By the evening the ants were ministering to them and 
caressing them with their antennae, and, as I watched, the 
larva crawled slowly in the direction of the insects, stopping 
frequently and vibrating all three pairs of true legs. It 
stopped when it had nearly reached the Jassids, and then 
again moved on with, I believe, only the first pair of legs 
in vibration. It then reached the insects and caused its 
vibrating legs to play on the closed wings of a Jassid, in such 
a way as to simulate, as I thought, the caresses of ants. 
“Still advancing, it gradually raised the fore-part of 
its body so as to overhang the insect and, when well above, 
