336 Mr. C. F, M. Swynnerton's Experiments 



of a Mylahris from a drive into which it had been carried, 

 and the ejection, long after taking, of a number of Antestia ; 

 (6) the apparent failure to grasp glossy Epilachna — yet 

 on one occasion some were carried off ; (7) the earthing or 

 leafing up of highly unacceptable objects (for the treat- 

 ment of Acraeine eggs in the same way see below). One 

 felt that it ought to have been for visual effect, yet of course 

 it could not have been. The leaflets and earth-crumbs 

 may have been specially scented by the ants, but why 

 should it not have been sufficient to do this to the animal 

 itself, as was apparently done in the tick-incident yet to 

 be described ? Experiments of this kind lead one to 

 wonder, throughout, at the completeness with which 

 other faculties are capable of taking the place of vision. 



At any rate several animals — the fly, the larvae of 

 Acraea and Amauris, the pupa of the latter (which was 

 highly interesting), adult Mylahris, Epilachna, Psammodes 

 (through hardness) and Antestia, all of them (unless 

 Antestia ?) with habits that place them at the mercy of 

 Dorylus — probably the greatest scourge of relatively low- 

 dwelling insect-life we possess — proved to be highly 

 protected against it ; and Dorylus is such a scourge that 

 its attacks and its failures may reasonably be regarded 

 as having aided appreciably in the selection (to their 

 present high pitch) of these insects' protective qualities. 



Of the potential prey itself, it is sufficient to say that 

 all the animals just named except Antestia are highly 

 sluggish and indifferent to attack. Antestia, our greatest 

 coft'ee-pest, less so. It possesses a strong " bug " smell, 

 and is conspicuously coloured, but it drops and flies and 

 dodges round twigs somewhat readily. Even so, it is 

 not very hard to catch, my coftee-girls bringing in great 

 numbers daily when destroying them by hand-picking. 

 It probably has special enemies : one of my tame but 

 unconfuied ground-hornbills {Bucorax caffer) once ate 

 193 in quick succession, and " capped " them Avith an 

 Amauris albimaculata. We have also seen in the present 

 experiments how Dorylus accepted them relatively readily, 

 once in large numbers, though it subsequently did eject 

 them. 



In general, given that Dorylus readily accepts insects 

 as low-grade as the Acraeinae and Danainae, the ants' 

 acceptances and refusals come in line with those of my 

 birds; for the latter too placed these butterflies above, 



