Ant-friend Lepidoptera of Queensland. 585 
seen to pay these great attention. I soon noticed that a 
liquid, often perfectly transparent (it looks so on the blue- 
green ground, probably it was pale bluish), is emitted, 
and that it is greedily drunk up by the ants. Over and 
over again, with and without a lens, I have seen this 
issue, and the ants speedily absorb it. Some ants, perhaps 
hungry or more enterprising than others, would take in a 
supply from a second caterpillar. If an ant is not satisfied 
with the quantity given out, she deliberately seizes the 
protruding parts and gives them a gentle nip, the man- 
dibles can plainly be seen to press upon the juicy flesh ; 
if the hint is not immediately acted upon a more vigorous 
squeeze is given, and the tails may be gripped and pressed. 
This is very comical, the ant’s meaniug is unmistakable, 
and the caterpillar so thoroughly understands it, too, for 
a second hint never fails. This liquid, though frequently 
quite clear, is often mixed with yellowish matter, and at 
times some jelly-like substance is extracted ; the latter the 
ants do not care about, for after the moisture is licked up 
this is in their way, and if they have not been imprisoned 
too long, will seize and tug at it until it comes off, and 
carry it to a spot set apart for waste matter, such as their 
own pellets and pupal skins, etc., are kept in. (A case moth 
larva—Iphierga macarista, Turner—is common in the 
nests, and as it is firmly and permanently affixed to the 
roofs of empty chambers I firmly believe that it acts as 
a scavenger by eating such matter, which must be carried 
to these chambers. I have seen sometimes fully twenty 
of these cases, all inhabited, in a single small chamber. 
Examples I had ate ant larvae and pupae, preferring them 
dry. Once I found several in a different ants’ domicile, 
with fragments of ant cocoons sticking out of the ends of 
the cases.) Of course, only a few caterpillars compara- 
tively are in one nest amongst the thousands of ants, 
numbers of which, therefore, cannot obtain any of this 
liquid food, so it follows that when several caterpillars and 
only a few ants are confined, the latter become surfeited, 
or weary of the sameness of their food, so seek it less 
frequently, and are not so particular in their attentions, 
therefore their friends’ vents become clogged (especially is 
this the case with small larvae) owing to the moisture 
evaporating and the matter hardening, so that they get in 
a bad way. Often a larva holds its terminal segments 
aloft for a considerable time, but the invitation, or in a 
