326 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton's Experiments 



entirely, and, looking back at it at the end of the Acraea 

 larva incident I was surprised to find it half-covered with 

 little heaps of tiny fallen leaflets from an overhanging 

 Acacia baileyana. Watching, I saw several leaflets and 

 in one case a portion of a midrib with a few leaflets attached 

 brought up and placed on it by the ants. The fly had 

 appeared to be attacked for a few moments with the same 

 vigour as were its fellow victims, but evidently the on- 

 slaught was not with pointed weapons, for apart from the 

 loss of a wing it seemed to have sustained little or no 

 damage when the ants abandoned it. It lay in the midst 

 of them and, whenever I moved it, was at once set on to 

 by the ants, but they quite evidently had no use for it 

 and each time speedily desisted. The fact that the two 

 Mylabris had already undergone an ordeal at the hands 

 of Column No. 1 and that one of them was certainly desti- 

 tute of " juice " might, I thought, account sufficiently 

 for the comparative readiness with which they and, for 

 that matter, the Epilachna, had been taken. I there- 

 upon captured (within a few yards of the column) two 

 more, also just afterwards a fresh Epilachna, and at once, 

 as I did so, put them in. I happened to drop one Mylabris 

 close to a vertical shaft that was guarded at its mouth by 

 a large number of ants. It was at once pulled in. The 

 second, placed further along, was attacked with great fury 

 and carried along for some distance, then partially aban- 

 doned, then attacked again and so on. Finally, after a 

 considerable time, it was left out to one side of the column 

 and partly covered over with leaflets like the Amauris 

 larva. The latter had now emerged from its covering 

 and was crawling towards the column. It was attacked 

 three or four times, particularly when it arrived at the 

 column, but never very seriously — the ants mostly desisted 

 directly they came into contact with it — and it passed out 

 on the other side. On picking it up I found that it seemed 

 not greatly the worse for its experience. The front pair 

 of filaments were hanging down limply and all the others 

 were partially collapsed, but on my setting it on a leaf of 

 its local Asclepiad food-plant {Cynanchicm chirindense, 

 S. Moore) it at once commenced to eat. The fly, put 

 down again, was treated with the same respect as pre- 

 viously. But a large beetle, Psammodes sp., now intro- 

 duced was attacked furiously and was quickly concealed 

 under a mass of ants. Nevertheless, it gradually crawled 



