Buttcrjiy-destvoyers in Southern China. 7 



But in the egg, larva and pupa state, butterflies here 

 have a host of enemies, the eggs especially being destroyed 

 by ants, which also attack and carry off young larvae and 

 pupa?. Ants almost certainly account for the greater 

 part of casualties amongst eggs, because of their being 

 ubiquitous and in countless swarms. One small orange 

 plant, which I often examined many consecutive mornings, 

 was much frequented by $ $ of Papilio polytes, L., and P. 

 helemts, L., also P. sarpedon, L. I have frequently seen the 

 $ lay an egg and fly off, and a moment after an ant, waiting 

 below the leaf, would carry the egg away. Sometimes I 

 have noticed a particular leaf and stem with three or four 

 eggs close together on them, and returning an hour or 

 so later have found them gone, almost certainly taken by 

 the ants which were invariably climbing over the plant. 



Centipedes kill pupa?, twining round them, boring a 

 tiny hole, and appearing to suck out the contents. 



Some of the Hemiptera or " bugs " {Gapsidie, I think) 

 probably account for the destruction of some pupa?, as I 

 have seen one with its trunk driven into a chrysalis, and two 

 or three times have seen a small red-and-black bug, about 

 an inch long, force its proboscis through the thin shell of 

 a small snail and eat or suck out the inmate. 



Amongst birds the Cuckoos especially must destroy 

 very great numbers of butterfly larva? during their short 

 summer stay here, Cuculus micropterus probably inflicting 

 most damage. The Cuckoo, like the Mantis, will eat 

 almost anything, and if a larva is particularly hairy it 

 rubs it up and down on the ground or tree trunk till it 

 breaks off most of the hair. It seems very fond of the 

 larva? of Rhopalocampta benjamini, Guer., a bright yellow- 

 and-black larva with a red head, and during May and June 

 its stomach generally contains several, judging from those 

 shot. Wasps, of course, carry off many larva?, but chiefly, 

 I think, those of the Pieridx, which are usually fairly 

 smooth-skinned. I was rearing a lot of Catopsilia pyranthc 

 larva? on the roof of the house, on a Cassia plant, and 

 the wasps carried off so many I was obliged to cover 

 them up. The ants, too, killed many of the newly- 

 hatched larva?, and as soon as pupating began, started 

 carrying off the pupa?. 



Ichneumonida? I pass over, all kinds of larva? in all 

 parts of the world being presumably attacked by them, 

 but some of the Pieridm here seem especially subject to 



