1939] 
Cannibalism Among Larvae 
33 
dietary requirements for complete development are met by 
a meat diet. The above considerations coupled with the fact 
that phytophagous larvae have been successfully raised to 
maturity on a meat diet refute the belief that a plant diet is 
necessary for the well-being of these larvae. 
Ill 
The following additional reports of cannibalism and the 
carnivorous habit have been gleaned from the literature. 1 
Most of them may be explained on the basis of the principles 
set forth above and in a previous paper. 
Riley, Packard, and Thomas (1883) stated that Laphygma 
frugiperda A. & S. and Cirphis unipuncta Haw. resort to 
cannibalism to satisfy their hunger when migrating. Many 
individuals are killed in this manner. Aitken and Davidson 
(1890) reported Ornithoptera minos Cram, as eating its 
own pupae when normal food was wanting. Witfield (1889) 
regarded Papilio ajax L. as showing more highly developed 
cannibalistic propensities than any other Papilionid larva 
of his acquaintance. Floersheim (1909) found, on the con- 
trary, that this species exhibits such behavior only during a 
shortage of food and then not very readily, since of twenty 
individuals but two were lost by cannibalism although the 
food shortage was extreme. Sorhagen (1899) listed all the 
cases (about eighty) of cannibalism known to him at the 
time. Forbes (1905) also reported L. frugiperda as being 
cannibalistic in nature when migrating. Thecla w-album 
according to Tutt (1905-1906) is commonly supposed to 
leave its food in order to feast upon the newly-formed pupae 
of its own species. Hering (1926) designated eighty-one 
species as “Mordraupen” of which nine cases had been re- 
ported as occurring in nature. This list is based on that 
of Sorhagen. Lommatzoch (1926) reported Spilosoma 
lubricipeda Esp. as eating a dead noctuid when its food 
supply had been exhausted. The report of Junglung (1930) 
that Scopelosoma satellitia L. resorted to coprophagy in 
captivity when food was lacking is interesting. Small larvae 
berg’s paper quoted in Psyche 44(4): 114, 1937 was also reviewed 
in Kosmos, Zeit. f. einheitliche Weltanschauung auf Grund der 
Entwicklungslehre, 3: 362-363, 1878. 
