36 THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S RECORD. 
that date I never saw it again, but it seems unlikely that the ants had 
destroyed it, after it had lived in their midst for a fortnight. It was 
never observed to feed on the ant’s brood, though always resting 
among them. ‘This, however, is not very surprising, as when the nest 
is uncovered the ants, as we have seen, remove their brood. I was 
inclined to think that it fed on the droppings and pellets of the ants 
as I have shown does the larva of Microdon mutabilis [Ent. Rec., 24, 
36 (1912)], because it seemed to be eating when moving the head from 
side to side on the floor of the nest, but Dr. Chapman tells me these 
are the usual movements of Lycaena larve. Judging from Dr. Chap- 
man’s and Mr. Frohawk’s experiments, it is most probable it fed on 
the ant’s larve. 
(Dr. Chapman and Mr. Frohawk have shown in papers read before 
the Entomological Society of London, that the food of L. arion in its 
last instar, in which it does nearly all its growing, consists of the larve, 
and possibly the pupz, of the ants. The hosts belong to the different 
species of the genus Myrmica, and they regard it as tolerably certain 
that it is not found with Donisthorpea flava.) 
The two following observations made on this colony, which how- 
ever do not concern arion, may be mentioned here :— 
September 17th.— 3g 3g which had hatched in the nest were 
observed to endeavour to embrace some of the 8 3. 
September 19th.—Having swept flowers, etc., in the garden for 
flies and other insects to give to the ants as food, the contents of the 
net were emptied into the box which contained the nest. A number 
of the seeds of the blue cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) were by this 
means accidentally introduced ; these were collected by the ants and 
taken into the nest, the elaiosomes of the seeds were eaten and the 
seeds buried in the earth of the nest. Subsequently, when enlarging 
the galleries and passages, the ants dug up the seeds and threw them 
on their dust heap. 
August 13th.—An arion larva, sent to me by Dr. Chapman, was 
introduced into the first (light, dry) chamber of a four-chambered 
‘“‘ Janet” nest, which contained a colony of JM. scabrinodis, dug up at 
Weybridge on July 30th. Very little attention was paid to it, one or 
two ants only tapping it with their antenne. It crawled’up the wall 
of the chamber, where it remained, and on August 15th it was dead. 
August 13th.—A second larva sent to me by Dr. Chapman was 
introduced into another “Janet” nest containing a colony of JI. scabri- 
nodis, also dug up at Weybridge. Great attention was paid to it by 
one 8, and the aion larva was observed to swell up in the extra- 
ordinary manner described by Dr. Chapman. On August 15th, how- 
ever, it was dead in the last (dark, damp) chamber of the nest, which 
contained the bulk of the ants and their brood. 
I sent the two dead larve to Dr. Chapman and he told me they 
had died a natural death, and had probably passed the stage when they 
would seek the ants’ nests or be of interest to the ants. 
Arangina: Thyreosthenius biovata, Camb.—Observed in some num- 
bers in nests of ’. rufa at Abbot’s Wood on September 19th. 
Tetrilus diversus, Camb.—A ¢@ was taken in the heart of a D. fuli- 
ginosa nest at Weybridge on September 8rd. 
