on some Carnivorous Insects. 341 



several at a time — would fall out, examine the tick well 

 and then pass on. The examination frequently ended 

 up with the adpression of the end of the ant's abdomen 

 to the surface of the tick. I had previously seen them 

 do this to some of the eggs when examining them, and 

 once one ant did it to another. I watched the performance 

 for quite fifteen minutes, and it was still going on when I 

 left. Was it a demonstration to the younger generation 

 of the distinctive characteristics of Mr. Tick ? Or were 

 they submitting their opinion of him ? Or was he merely 

 being detained until some official of the tick department 

 should come along and take charge ? !] 



In the latish afternoon I returned to the spot and put 

 down in turn in one of the smaller side columns the eggs 

 (well-punctured) of the following butterflies : — A. caldarena 

 (two lots of three or four each) ; P. dardanus hippocoon 

 (two) ; P. demodocus (one) ; P. cardui (four, forming a single 

 mass) ; Euryiela hiarbas (one) ; Hypolimnas misippus (two) ; 

 and two C. elhalion (unusually small and yellow, not green, 

 and with a very narrow ring) . Throughout the experiment, 

 which lasted a considerable time, I saw no notice at all 

 taken of the hairy egg of E. hiarbas — it merely became 

 automatically pushed out to one side each time I returned 

 it to the column. I forget whether I saw the Pyromeis 

 eggs definitely inspected — at any rate, they found no 

 carriers and met with the same treatment as that of the 

 Eurytela. At least once an H. misippus egg was inspected, 

 but neither was taken. The hippocoon and P. demodocus 

 eggs were always carried outside, never along, and at first 

 the same was done to the two C. ethalion eggs. Seeing 

 this, I added a green ethalion egg of the brood from which 

 I had used in the morning. This quickly found a carrier. 

 I added yet another and an egg of P. lucretia var. expansa. 

 Each was shortly thrown outside, but only a few minutes 

 later the Pseudacraea egg was again picked up, and this 

 time carried right on to the next station. 



The A. caldarena eggs were sometimes inspected and 

 always refused, and so were some A. acara eggs that I now 

 added, together with two more eggs of Pyrameis and another 

 of P. lucretia. The C. ethalion eggs were being frequently 

 inspected and occasionally picked up, but none were 

 carried away, and once an ant, having inspected and re- 

 fused one of them, passed on to the P. lucretia egg close 

 by (it had been put outside the column by an ant which 



