on some Carnivorous Insects. 331 



touch the Amauris larva, though an imago of the same 

 species was at once carried along, I interrupted the 

 column by placing in its midst a rather spread-out mass 

 of not less than 200 coffee-bugs thoroughly mixed up with 

 about a third of that number of the weevil Systoles and 

 a few Himatismus. Half an hour later the pile had been 

 reduced by about half, the ants taking the insects as they 

 came from the outside and not choosing between weevils 

 and bugs. An hour or more later, by lantern light, I 

 found the column reduced to almost nil and the bugs to 

 between twenty and thirty. They were somewhat scat- 

 tered and more or less piled up between with loose earth 

 and Acacia leaflets, a very scanty layer, however. No 

 weevils or Himatismus were left. I inserted an A. albi- 

 maculata and a Leuceronia thaJassina ^, but the few smallish 

 ants that were still using the track took no notice of them, 

 beyond stopping to inspect en jmssant. Shortly after- 

 wards I noticed that a fresh track had been made along- 

 side the old one, and more ants were passing along it. 

 The old one with the butterflies still in it was now quite 

 deserted. I placed them together in the centre of the new 

 track, about equidistant from each drive, and saw both 

 seized. On returning a few minutes later I found them 

 being dragged in opposite directions. The Leuceronia 

 was going at unmistakably the better pace and had already 

 practically reached its goal ; the Amauris with about the 

 same number of ants was barely half-way. Now, ten 

 minutes later, as I am about to go to bed, the Amauris 

 has only proceeded about two inches further. I had 

 removed the Leuceronia on my last visit, wishing to use it 

 further; it was then within an inch of its hole. The 

 ants had made no attempt to strip the wings off either. 



April 27th, 1911. — I looked once more, for the last time, 

 ten minutes after the above was written. The Amauris 

 had only proceeded another two inches in spite of the fact 

 that since I removed the Leuceronia the number of ants 

 engaged on it had more than doubled. They seemed to 

 be spending as much of their time in feeling over the 

 surface of the butterfly as in carrying it. The bugs, though 

 a number of ants was passing round them, were being 

 completely neglected. 



This morning the wings of the Amauris were lying just 

 outside the drive. 



Later : Found this afternoon where the above drive 



