608 JOURNAL, BOMB AT NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



While walking in the compound this morning 1 noticed at my feet a mass 

 of foam round which a black and yellow ground beetle was moving. Closer 

 inspection showed that the beetle was Eudema augulatum and that the foam 

 enclosed a young snail, Anophanta bistrialis, which is quite common 

 locally. 



The beetle was on the ground and was attacking the snail which had 

 climbed up a small twig. The carabid was very determined in its onslaught, 

 rising and biting the snail which defended itself by producing a large amount 

 of frothy mucus. y^Yven Eudejna approached Anophanta its waving antennae 

 invariably touched the exposed head of the snail, v/hich was at once very 

 quickly withdrawn. At every assault the beetle fiercely forced its head 

 down through the frothy mass and bit at the snail, usually at its retracted 

 head. 



Ev^ery now and then, evidently annoyed by the mucus, the carabid came 

 to the ground and rvibbed the sticky stuff from its mouth parts, head, body 

 and legs. Meantime the snail had again protracted its head and was 

 endeavouring to see how it could escape from its relentless foe. Once the 

 beetle managed to get a good bite into its victim's back just behind the head. 

 I saw it tear off the flesh and carry the piece in its mandibles down to the 

 ground where it was eaten. 



All the while the snail was busy making its protective covering of froth. 

 The mucus seemed to be that ordinarily secreted but it covered the 

 j)ulmonary opening, the air expelled from which made the bubbles which 

 rendered the whole mass frothy. 



At length realising that the snail had no chance against such a determined 

 and active enemy I took it up, washed it and found that with the exception 

 of the wounds on the back and on the foot, it was not otherwise harmed. 



Dr. Sharp, in his account of the Carabidce in the Cambridge Natural His- 

 tory, records the fact that species of Caralus found in North Africa, where 

 snails abound, are specially formed for attacking these molluscs, having the 

 head long and slender so that it can be thrust into the shell of the 

 snail. 



It is perhaps worth noting that here in South India Eudema has the same 

 food as its African relatives. 



W. RAE SHERRIFFS, 



Prof, of Biology, Madras Christian College. 

 Madkas, 8^A January 1916. 



No. XXVIII.— BIOLOGICAL NOTE ON ARGYNNIS HYPERBIUS. 



Mr. T. C. F. Fryer's note on A. castetsi led me to work out the life history 

 of A. hyperbius as found in the Nilgiris. Plenty of ovse but no larvae were 

 obtained both at Coonoor and at Ooty ; I think that it was too early for the 

 larvce. Males of this butterfly keep to the summit and ridings of the hills, 

 the females, scarce in these situations, are very plentiful in the sholas in the 

 valleys probably because there only is their food-plant to be found. By 

 watching several females I was able to obtain plenty of eggs, these being 

 invariably deposited on objects such as dried grasses or bracken in the 

 neighbourhood of the food-plant. 



Ovum. — Broadly conical, apex blunted, surface morulaform, colour straw 

 yellow. 



First instar. — Head shiny black, body greenish with a white middorsal 

 stripe, each segment bears a row of papillae from which spring stiff setae. 



