86 BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 



litt.) that, at Paramatta, N.S.W., from 1877-1880, he frequently found 

 the larvae of Ialmenus ictinus, a Theclid superficially resembling our 

 Zephyrus quercus, feeding on Acacia decurrens ; at first, he obtained 

 them by beating, but afterwards by searching, when he was greatly 

 surprised to find numbers of ants running excitedly backwards and 

 forwards over the larvae. He says that it seems to him most interesting 

 that the power of exuding an attractive secretion should extend to the 

 far-off region of Australia. Anderson says (J'ict. Butts., pp. 98-99) that 

 the ants affiliated to the larvae of I. ictinus are particularly large and 

 fierce. He also observes that the larvae of the allied I. evagoras are 

 gregarious, and invariably attended by ants. 



The connection of at least one British species, Lycaena avion, with 

 ants, has been observed and commented on. Frohawk noticed that 

 the butterflies of this species showed a preference for laying their eggs 

 upon thyme plants growing on the nests of formica fiava, and suspected 

 some connection between the ants and larvae. He placed a living larva 

 of L. arion, that had passed its 3rd moult, into a box with four examples 

 of F. flava. They immediately ran to it, and, waving their antennae 

 over and upon it, apparently smelt and licked it, and seemed particu- 

 larly attracted to the hinder part of the back, about the 10th segment, 

 i.e., the 7th abdominal segment. First one and then another of the 

 ants would run over the larva, and then stop to lick that part of its 

 back. He then noticed a tiny bead of moisture appear, and one of the 

 ants touched it with its mouth, which instantly caused the bead to 

 disappear. Examination of the larva and ants under the microscope 

 showed a small elongated transverse gland on the dorsum of the 10th 

 segment. Examination of another larva in the same stage showed the 

 gland which kept throbbing while the larva was feeding. The ants 

 were placed close to the larva, and they soon ran over it. Directly a 

 foot touched the gland, or a place very near it, it immediately throbbed 

 more violently and swelled up, and then ejected a globule of clear 

 white liquid, which was immediately licked up by an ant. In a few 

 seconds a foot again touched the gland, and another bead of liquid 

 oozed out, which was at once again licked up by an ant. An interest- 

 ing fact is, that the larva unheeded the ants running over and around 

 it while it kept feeding, but the gland is apparently exceedingly 

 sensitive to the touch of an ant's foot, and, although Frohawk several times 

 touched the glands of several larvae with the point of a very fine sable- 

 hair brush, they would at once wince and contract, but on no account 

 could the exudation of the liquid be induced, yet directly an ant's foot, 

 or the claws of the foot, touched it, a bead would appear, and at once 

 be imbibed by the ants. Although the larva was kept in a box with 

 numerous ants, both workers and winged females, together with their 

 pupae, the ants one and all acted precisely similarly; not one attempted 

 to bite the larva, but, as soon as they touched it, they slowly closed the 

 jaws and waved their antenme over and upon it. The gland is of 

 peculiar construction, being formed of flexible tissue, and surrounded 

 by numerous glassy-white pyriform processes varying in size ; some 

 are extremely minute, those bordering the edges of the gland are 

 furnished with excessively small white bristles, each process bearing 

 four or five ; these are in the form of a fan with diverging points, and 

 all are directed towards the central aperture, the whole forming a fringe 

 surrounding the gland, and are obviously for the purpose of holding 



