ANTS. 



-upposc. could hardly he overlooked by the ants. Such are, e. g., the 

 larva: of the ( 'lythriiue, a group of Chrysomelid beetles, represented 

 in Europe by the genus Clythra. in the I'nited States by Coscinoptera. 

 The adult beetles are found on plants, but the larvae are sometimes com- 

 mon in the superficial chambers of ant-nests. They inhabit cylindrical 

 or pear-shaped earthen cases of their own construction. These are 

 open only at one end which can be closed by the hard head of the larva. 

 ' tcca.Monally the ants gnaw holes in the earthen case and devour the 

 enclosed larva or pupa, but as a rule these synoeketes are completely 

 ignored. Escherich (1897, 1906) claims to have detected a tendency 

 towards brood parasitism in a Clythra which inhabits the nests of 

 Tetraiiioriitiii cespituin in Asia Minor. The larva often withdraws 

 into its ease so as to leave an empty cavity in front of its head. The 

 ant>. seeking for cozy little depressions in which to hide their egg- 

 packets, often place them in this cavity. The Clythra larva then moves 

 its head forward and devours the eggs. But these insects are never 

 sufficiently abundant in the nests to destroy many of the eggs, and 

 they probably feed very largely on the refuse of the kitchen middens 

 among which they are most frequently found. 



Another insect that belongs among the neutral symeketes and bears 

 a slight resemblance to Clythra, is the singular wine-red Microlepi- 

 dopteron, Pachypodistes goeldii, recently observed by Hagmann (1907 ). 

 The larva of this moth lives in the paper nests of the arboreal Dolicho- 

 derns gibboso-analis of Brazil. It feeds on the carton of the nest and 

 with this substance builds a mussel-shaped case from which it can pro- 

 trude its head and in which it pupates after completing its growth. 

 When the moth emerges it is covered throughout with a dense coating 

 of erect, golden-yellow, fugitive hairs, 3 mm. long, which protect it 

 from the ants till its wings have expanded and it is able to escape from' 

 the nest. This recalls the singular Lycsenid Liphyra described by Dodd 

 and Chapman (see p. 359 ). This insect is also a synoekete like Pachy- 

 podistes. though I referred to it in connection with the trophobiotic 

 Lycaenidae. Both Liphyra and Pachypodistes are protected by a hard 

 case in their larval and pupal stages, the former by an induration of its 

 own integument, the latter by a case constructed from the materials of 

 the nest, and the hatching imagines of both insects baffle the ants with 

 an envelope of fugitive scales. 



Several Scarabaeid beetles are also to be included among the synre- 

 ketes. The European Cetonia floricola, e.g., passes its larval and pupal 

 stages in the depths of Formica rufa nests, and in the United States 

 the allied l-.uphoria in da and hirtipes bear a similar relation to F. 

 Integra, ohscnripes and c.rscctoidcs. I have seen E. inda fly from a 



