404 ANTS. 



K>cherich found this \.<> be the ca>e in the species which he studied. 

 The larvae of the I'aussithe are still unknown. 



The families (iintid;e, Ectrephidse and Cossyphodidae are very small 

 and aberrant, the first being allied to the Paussidae and containing only 

 two species, (jiu'stns fonnicola and incincrti. taken from Crcmasto- 

 t/astcr nests in South America ; the second allied to the Scydmsenidae 

 and containing the genera Ectrephes, Polyplocotcs and Diplocotcs, with 

 some seven >pecies peculiar to Australia; and the third, of very uncer- 

 tain affinities and containing the genera Cossyphodes, Cossyphodites 

 and Cossyphodinus, represented by a few species in South Africa. 

 JJrauns (1901), who has studied the family last mentioned, finds that 



FIG. 240. Atenielcs soliciting food from a worker Myrmica. (Wasmann.) 



Cossyphodites woodroofei, which is abundant in the nests of Plagio- 

 Icpis cnstodiens, has trichomes in a cavity at the tips of its peculiar, 

 ribbed wing-cases. 



Vastly richer in species are the families Clavigeridab and Psela- 

 phidae, sometimes regarded as a single family and comprising hundreds 

 of species of small red or yellow beetles with short wing-cases and ant- 

 like bodies. Many, if not all, the Clavigeridae and several genera of 

 Pselaphidse are myrmecophilous, but the true guests seem to be confined 

 to the former family. Some Pselaphids, like our American Decarthron 

 stigmosum, which is sometimes common in the nests of Aplucnogaster 

 fulra and trcatcc, and the species of Batrisns and Chcnniuin, seem to 

 represent transitions between the synceketes and the symphile types. 

 The Clavigeridae are more interesting because they often show decid- 

 edly symphilic characters, such as antennal modifications and trichomes 

 at the posterolateral corners of the wing-cases. Indeed, the antennae 

 of the former sometimes rival those of the Paussidae. They are usually 

 cylindrical, but their joints may fuse and become drum-stick-shaped 

 (Rhynchoclaviger, Adranes), flattened and twisted (Ncoccnts}, or even 

 antler-like, as in Micro claviger ccrvicornis of Madagascar. Among 



