r THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. VT 
cibly removed, perhaps in fighting. Many insects appear to 
be but little inconvenienced by serious mutilations guch as 
theso. Thus a wasp may have its abdomen snipped off while 
feeding, and yet will continue to suck honey until a large 
‘drop collects behind where the abdomen was. 
Recently one of my sons found a metallic blow-fly Lwetlia: 
caesar, Linn., which had. lost its abdomen, crawling, appar- 
ently quite unconcerned, on a window. 
On another nest of CU. forcipes 1 observed an ant dragging 
a small stone along by aid of its jaws. The stone appeared 
to me to be a heavy load, so I secured ant and stone, and 
taking them home weighed them on a chemical balance. The 
ant weighed 0.06 and the stone 0.57 gram., so the load was 
almost ten times that of the ant. This is equivalent to a 
man dragging along the carcase of a large bullock. 
Last summer when at Leura I saw an ant of the same 
species dragging a eucalyptus leaf which it had seized by the 
stalk. The ant weighed 0.057 and the leaf 0.59 gram., so 
here again the load was just about ten times the weight of 
the ant. 
PRELIMINARY NOTES ON MYRMECOPHILOUS 
LYCAENID LARVAE. 
(By G. A. Waterhouse, B.Sc., F.E.S.) 
It has been known for many years that the larvae of the 
Australian ‘““Blues’’ are in many cases attended by ants or 
even pass a portion of their life in anty’ nests. The ants ob- 
tain from the larvae a much prized secretion that exudes from 
certain dorsal glands. Unless this secretidn is removed the. 
larvae will die, so to successfully rear them a supply of the. 
correct species of ant is necessary. : 
Many interesting interrelations between the ants and their 
guests remain to be discovered. Does the female lay her eggs 
on a tree that hag an ants’ nest at its base, or do the ants 
collect the eggs and young larvae? In only a few cases have: 
- the names of the ants attending particular larvae been re- 
corded. 
Ogyris genoveva is attended at Como and Killara by: 
Camponotus testaceipes. This ant is a moderately large one, 
with a black head and abdomen, and a yellow thorax, and 
closely resombles the sugar ant, (. mgriceps, that so often: 
invades our pantries. The food plant of the butterfly is 
Loranthus, and when a Camponotus nest is at the base of the- 
host tree the larvae may be found there. Usually the larvae- 
are found singly under pieces of bark attonded by four or five- 
ants. In this case the young larvae are secured by wander~ 
