244 



The larva is pale green, thickly dotted with black, and bears very lit- 

 tle resemblence to the perfect insect. The latter, when it emerges, is 

 also pale green. In three hours it assumes the perfect form, only still 

 greenish white in color. Xearly every colony 

 had members ranging in size from tiny, newly 

 hatched larvae to perfect insects. Many larva?, 

 as well as old ones, were infested with a small 

 red mite, which also infests the Tarnished Plant 

 Bug. 

 Almost every colony was guarded by one or 

 Fig. 25. jsntiiia sinuata: more auts. One colouy consisted of many larvae 

 aduit-eniarged(originai). ^^^ ^^^^^^^ insects, each group guarded by 



medium sized ants, which were all black, except the central portion of 

 the body, which is brown. When I raised a leaf to examine closer the 

 ants gave battle and bit my finger. I gently drew them away, when 

 every insect, perfect and larvae, began to scatter with astonishing alac- 

 rity all over the plant. The ants returned and ''rounded them uj)" 

 exactly as a collie does sheep, placing one ant as guard if the colony 

 was small, more if large. When one strays away an ant at ones goes 

 after it, and with infinite patience gently drives it home again. They 

 constantly pat and press them with their antennae as they do the 

 Ax)hides. I have numbers of Aphides in my garden almost deserted 

 by ants, which assiduously attended them before the Entilia hatched. 

 When the larvae split on the back the ants supervise the process, seem- 

 ing to peel the empty larval case off. When the insect emerges one or 

 more ants anxiously tend it, passing their antennae over it repeatedly, 

 I ''cut out" a newly hatched Entilia and it at once made for the upper 

 side of the leaf. Very few are ever found on the upper side of a leaf. 

 An ant was detailed to bring it back, which it finally did. It then 

 stayed with the rest. Immense numbers of Entilia sinuata were present 

 about one hundred feet away, and these were tended by medium sized 

 black ants. A very large ant-hill is in the center of this flower garden. 

 I believe they attract or introduce Aphides to the vicinity of their 

 abode. These were arrant cowards, and when touched dropped some 

 five or six feet to the ground; otherwise they conducted themselves like 

 their black and brown relatives. Twenty minutes afterward the Entilias 

 were quiet and the ants on guard. When one considers the fact that 

 Entilia sinuata in perfect form can both fly and jump — had one jump 

 four feet and fly ten feet from my hand this evening — the control that 

 the ants maintain over them is remarkable. In fact, as I told the hired 

 man (who patiently listens to all the new "old facts" I discover), Solo- 

 mon knew what he was talking about when he said: " Go to the ant, 

 thou sluggard ; consider her ways and be wise." I am fully convincea 

 both from observation and reading that ants have reasoning j30wers. 



I have found Entilia sinuata quite plentiful in woods on the under- 

 brush, also on different species of flowers. They suck the juices from 



