ON THE MYRMECOPHILY OF CATERPILLARS OF CATO- 

 CHRVSOPS CNEJUS FABR. 



By H. ViEHMEYER. 



(Dresden, Germamj.) 

 [Translated and edited by Charles S. Banks.] 



In a collection of larvEe of LycEenidse received from Mr. W. Schultze, 

 of the Bureau of Science^ Manila, P. I., I have noted, among other 

 interesting forms, the species designated in the title of this paper. 



The larvse belong to those species which bear a symbiotic relationship 

 to ants. De Niceville '^ thus designates them and in doing so says, 

 "Extensile organs on the twelfth segment small." He mentions Gam- 

 ponotus ruhripes Drury, subspecies coinpressus Fabr. (det. Porel.) as 

 visiting ants. In the same work he gives the following notes by Green, 

 of Ce3'lon: "Both species (Tarucus theophrastus Fabr. and Catochrysops 

 cnejus Fabr.) have the power of emitting some agreeable odor or juice 

 from the small movable horns situated on the upper side near the tail. 

 These horns are capable of being projected and retracted at pleasure."' 

 What De E"iceville here says regarding the peculiar organs of the larva 

 of C. cnejus is very incomplete and is therefore liable to give a false 

 impression. 



The ant-attracting organs of the lycsenid larvae were first fully 

 described and figured by Brants^ (1865) and Guenee ^ (1867), ap- 

 parently independently of each other. According to them, these larva 

 possess two distinct organs : The first on the dorsal surface of the third 

 from the last abdominal segment (the eleventh body-segment, including 

 the head), on the median line and near the posterior margin of the 

 segment having the form of a straight sulcus surrounded by two swellings 

 or lips; upon the penultimate (twelfth body-segment) toward the outer 

 half and behind the last pair of stigmata is another pair of eversible 

 (evaginating) and inversible (invaginating) cylinders, the upper edges 



'The Butterflies of India, Burmah and Ceylon (1890), 3, 17. 

 ^'Sepp. Jan. Christian, Nederlandsche Insekten (1870), (2) pt. 2, 59, pi. 13. 

 ^D'un Organe particulier que pr^sente une chenille de Lycjena. Ann. Soc. Ent. 

 Fr. (1867), (4) 7, 665-668, pi. 13, figs. 0-12. 



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