ANTS. 



bodu> of l''oriica, ( 'nut ponolns and Lusiits. The larva of the parasite 

 develops in the ant's gaster. 1 Wasmann (1899) nas described and 

 figured two interesting Kuropean J'roctotrupids, Solenopsia imitatri.v. 

 from the nest> of Solcnopsis fnya.v, and Tetramopria aurocincta, from 

 those of Tetraiiuiriiiin cespilitin. Solenopsia seems to mimic the Sole- 

 nopsis workers and Tetnunopria is provided with golden trichomes and 

 for this reason is regarded by Wasmann as a true guest. Ashmead 

 ( 1893) enumerates among American Bethylids four species oiPseudiso- 

 hnieliinin (mandibulare, iiioiitainon, myrmecophilum and rufii'entrc) 

 as living in the nests of Formica and Camponotus. An exquisite, sub- 

 apterous, purple, green and gold Asaphine Chalcidid, Phcidoloxcnits 

 wlieeleri (Fig. 253), which lives in the nests of Phcidolc instabilis, is 

 probably also entoparasitic on the ants or their progeny during its larval 

 stages. 



Finally, we come to a number of extraordinary round worms which 

 live in ants or their larvae. Janet (1893^, l &97 e ) an d de Man (1894) 

 have described several Nematodes from the bodies of worker ants. 

 The former investigator saw some of these worms, several centimeters 

 long, issue from the orifice of the labial glands of Formica fusca, and 

 he and de Man described another form, Pelodcra janeti, which lives in 

 the pharyngeal glands of Lasiiis and Formica. " Within these glands 

 the Pelodcra are bathed in a yellow liquid on which they feed. They 

 complete a larval stage in the glands and then escape from them to live 

 a free life on the detritus of the nest. There they give rise to a series 

 of generations whose larvae are distinctly different from those living 

 in the heads of the ants and develop without entering the insects." 

 Other Nematodes belonging to the family Anguillulidae have been seen 

 in ants' nests, but nothing is known concerning their habits and devel- 

 opment. The Gordiids are represented by Gordius formicanim, which 

 von Siebold took from the gaster of an ant, and by Mennis, the larvae 

 of which live in the crops of the larval, pupal and adult workers of 

 several different neotropical Formicidae and produce a great distension 

 of the gaster in the imaginal instar. I first observed these parasites in 

 the Texan Phcidole commutata (19010?, 19070). They enter the larva 

 and apparently by unduly stimulating its appetite cause it to be fed 

 excessively, so that it becomes unusually large at the time of pupation 

 and produces a gigantic worker form, with ocelli (Fig. 254, B and C). 

 This form, which I have called the mermithergate, -was first seen by 

 Emery ( 1890^) in the Costa Rican Pheidolc absurda, but he supposed 



1 Cockerell ( " A New Braconid of the Genus Elasmosoma," Proc. Ent. Soc. 

 Washington, 10, 1908, pp. 168, 169) has recently described a species of Elasiiw- 

 soma ( /:'. i'igilatis) parasitic on Formica subfolita in Colorado. 



