the last stage of the larva of Lycaena arion. 315 



hunched itself both the second and third time while the 

 ant was about an inch away and facing an opposite direc- 

 tion, and at the fourth hunching up the ant was standing 

 over the larva ready for the signal, and when this was given 

 it was quickly seized and carried. 



Capt. Purefoy tells me that in every case — numbering 

 as many as eighty-two — the ant which first finds the larva 

 is the one that carries it away, as witnessed by either Miss 

 Ley or himself. 



Only yesterday, October 5, I again visited the ants' 

 nurseries at East Farleigh, when we carried out further 

 very interesting observations, by so doing bringing them 

 up to date. 



Upon removing part of the side of a large nest of laevinodis 

 in which we had previously seen larvae taken, we found no 

 fewer than six very healthy arion larvae, varying in size 

 from about 6 mm. to 8 mm. These were fairly equally 

 distributed over a space of about eight inches on the same 

 level, and about five inches below the surface. Five were 

 quietly resting in the larger galleries of the nest, each 

 apparently in its selected chamber, as we found the surface 

 upon which they rested to be finely carpeted with a slight 

 layer of silk. The sixth larva was amongst a brood of 

 laevinodis larvae and had several ants in attendance ; it was 

 then apparently in its dining-room. It is probable that 

 they rest in certain selected parts of the more spacious 

 galleries to which they return after each meal, but this 

 of course remains to be ascertained. 



From observations we have made it appears highly 

 probable that the little yellow ant (Donisfhorpea flava) is 

 an unsuitable host, and that it is incapable of carrying 

 off such a comparatively bulky burden as the larva of 

 L. arion. 



During August last I placed as many as seven arion 

 larvae just after moulting, on a natural nest of D. flava 

 established in a large flower-pot ; these all entered the nest 

 by themselves, they were not carried by the ants, although 

 they were milked by them. A month after the last had 

 entered, I very carefully searched every particle of the nest 

 without finding any trace of the larvae. The nest con- 

 tained broods oi flava larvae, and it was impossible for the 

 arion to have escaped from the nest. 



If D. flava proves to be, as I firmly believe it will, an 

 unsuitable host for L. arion, it explains the cause of failure 



