PERSECUTED AND TOLERATED GUESTS. 397 



cophila. Attapliila, however, is tolerated by the ants without the slightest 

 signs of hostility. The mutilation of the antennae is probably accidental 

 or unintentional. 



In 1901 Bolivar described a second species of Attaphila (A. bcryi), 

 taken many years ago in the nests of Acromyrmex lundi, in Argen- 

 tina and Uruguay. This species is very similar to the Texan form 

 and it, too, seems always to have the antennae mutilated. According 

 to Bolivar, " it is found in the nests of the ants, sitting on the back, 

 neck or even on the head of the sexual individuals (never on the 

 neuters), and when these swarm forth during the spring and summer, 

 it is also carried out of the nests, still attached to its host." Sheldon 

 has recently described from the nest of a South American wasp (Polybia 

 pygnicca) a peculiar Blattid (Sphe cophila polybiarum) which super- 

 ficially resembles Attaphila in many particulars. 



Another strigilating syncekete is Oxysoma oberthueri, a Staphylinid 

 beetle which lives with Myrmecocystus viaticus in the deserts of Algiers 

 where it has been observed by Escherich (i()O2b}. Like Attaphila this 

 beetle mounts the bodies of its host and licks or shampoos them with 

 great eagerness, evidently feeding on the surface secretions (Fig. 235). 

 Escherich is inclined to regard this beetle as a kind of degenerate 

 symphile, because it has a very short tongue and sparse yellow 

 trichomes, but as it is treated with indifference by its hosts, its proper 

 place is among the synceketes. 



