( XXX ) 



Hagen), and Asilid flies of three genera [Alcimus, Microsfylum 

 and another) to feed on insects when held by the wings between 

 finger and thumb. They had refused to seize and eat their 

 prey when caged with it. 



. Note on the larvae of Axaphe panda. Boisd.- — Mr. 

 SwYNNERTON also icad the following note on larvae as luunan 

 food : — 



The nests containing the gTegarious larvae of Anaphe panda, 

 Boisd. (usually, as Prof. Poulton informs me, placed in the 

 Eupterotidae but considered by Aurivillius to be really one 

 of the Notodontidae), are collected by the natives of Gazaland 

 in S.E. Africa and the larvae eaten. 



This is hardly of special interest in itself, for many other 

 moth-larvae are also eaten by them, but what is perhaps of 

 some slight interest is their alleged differential effect on 

 particular individuals eating them. I was first informed of 

 this by a native skinner and collector in my employ, whose 

 statements I have in general found to be reliable, and he 

 specially remarked that even brothers, eating from the same 

 dish larvae that had been captured and prepared together, 

 dift'ered thus in their reaction : one brother suffering no ill- 

 eft'ects whatever, the other being always completely pros- 

 trated, for as much as two or three days in the more serious 

 cases. 



The statement has been completely corroborated by such 

 natives as I have since spoken to on the subject. All have 

 further agreed in sapng that the larvae are much liked, and 

 that their inability to eat them is felt as a misfortune by those 

 whom they affect unpleasantly. It has not struck me to ascer- 

 tain specially whether the ill-effects are due to urticating hairs 

 or to some chemical substance contained in the larva. I have 

 taken it for granted that it is the latter, seeing that the 

 preparation of the larvae has been of a kind to destroy such 

 urticating properties as the growing hairs might otherwise have 

 exercised, but I may of course be wrong. The natives them- 

 selves appear to recognise a correlation between food-plant 

 and degree of virulence, but I will go into this more particularly 

 at some future time. The statements contained in this note 

 may be taken as referring more particularly to such of the 



