1921] Wheeler: Some Social Beetles 105 



of the clusters of frog-hoppers, and for the possession of others 

 a constant skirmishing was going on. The wasp stroked the 

 young hoppers, and sipped up the honey when it was exuded, 

 just like the ants. When an ant came up to a cluster of leaf- 

 hoppers attended by a wasp, the latter would not attempt to 

 grapple with its rival on the leaf, but would fly off and hover 

 over the ant ; then when its little foe was well exposed, it would 

 dart at it and strike it to the ground. The action was so quick 

 that I could not determine whether it struck with its fore-feet or 

 its jaws, but I think it was with the feet. I often saw a wasp 

 trying to clear a leaf from ants that were already in full posses- 

 sion of a cluster of leaf-hoppers. It would sometimes have to 

 strike three or four times at an ant before it made it quit its 

 hold and fall. At other times one ant after the other would be 

 struck off with great celerity and ease, and I fancied that some 

 wasps were cleverer than others. In those cases where it 

 succeeded in clearing the leaf, it was never left long in peace. 

 Fresh relays of ants were continually arriving, and generally 

 tired the wasps out. It would never wait for an ant to get near 

 it, doubtless knowing well that if its little rival once fastened 

 on its leg, it would be a difficult matter to get rid of it again. 

 If a wasp first obtained possession, it was able to keep it ; for the 

 first ants that came up were only pioneers, and by knocking 

 these off, it prevented them from returning and scenting the 

 trail to communicate the intelligence to others." 



The second case is more remarkable and refers to a Gerydine 

 Lyc^nid butterfly of India, described by Bingham (1907, p. 287) : 

 "A remarkable habit in one member of the subfamily, viz., 

 Allotinus horsfieldi, has been communicated to me by Colonel 

 H. J. Barrow, R. A. M. C. He writes : 'I don't know whether you 

 have observed the habits of a small plain butterfly which I caught 

 in Maymyo. I watched it often in the jungle, sometimes for an 

 hour at a time. It puzzled me at first to know why it took such 

 an immense time to settle. It would keep within one yard of a 

 spot and almost settle, twenty times perhaps, before it actually 

 did. Its legs are immensely long and I discovered why. It settles 

 over a mass of Aphides and then tickles them with its proboscis, 

 just as ants do with their antennae and seems to feed on their 

 exudations.' The butterfly would settle over rather large ants 



