Feb., 1942 
The Queensland Naturalist 
15 
digglesi. Eggs are laid singly, or in twos and threes, on 
twigs and leaf-stalks. Small larva green, with dark brown 
markings at each extremity. Full-grown larva about one 
inch long ; not so flattened as that of digglesi ; sides bright 
green with two yellow longitudinal stripes ; back dark 
brown with conspicuous grey dorsal band with promin- 
ently scalloped margins. (Some larvae are duller and not 
so brightly marked.) The larvae are found on the under 
sides of the leaves, in sheltered positions along the twigs 
and branches or in holes in the trunk. They usually 
pupate in holes in the trunk. Pupa similar in shape to 
that of digglesi but smaller and darker brown. (Two 
pupae from deep in a hollow branch were pinkish white 
and abnormally small.) Pupal duration in summer eleven 
to fifteen days, in winter thirty days. Larvae in captivity 
will eat Mistletoe (L. vitellinus) ; in this way Dr. G. A. 
Waterhouse was able to rear a larva in Sydney. 
Pseudodipsas myrmecophila illidgei Waterhouse and Lyell. 
Larvae and pupae of this species have been discovered 
accidentally. When searching mangroves at Burleigh for 
pupae of H. epicurus, we came across four pupae of 
illidgei in an ants’ nest in a hollow branch. Subsequently, 
when searching the bark of a bloodwood at Southport for 
pupae of 0. oroetesy we found both larvae and pupae of 
illidgei. In each instance, the larvae and pupae were in 
the nests of a small dark brown or black ant, determined 
by Mr. J. Clark as indistinguishable from Cremaiogaster 
laeviceps. On the bloodwood the ants occur in small 
colonies under patches of bark only two or three inches 
square; not more than three or four larvae or pupae have 
been found in the one colony, and they are usually 
surrounded by the larvae and pupae of the ants. We 
have succeeded in rearing only three larvae in captivity, 
having had difficulty in establishing a colony of ants for 
them. The larvae are sluggish and, when deprived of the 
ant, become inactive and die. We can offer no evidence as 
regards the nature of their food, as we have never observed 
them eat anything — despite various experiments. There 
seem to be three possibilities: (1) the larvae are in some 
way fed by the ants, as suggested by Dr. Waterhouse; 
(2) they eat the larvae and pupae of the ants; or (3) they 
eat bark or wood. In favour of the last possibility is the 
fact that the larvae have the same shiny, greasy appear- 
ance of other wood-eating larvae, and that the set butter- 
flies tend to develop grease. 
