THE COMPOUND XESTS. 4-9 



yoin\rme.v, Aeromyrma and Solcnopsis, have two peculiarities which 

 have been interpreted by Forel as the result of lestobiosis, namely, the 

 diminutive size and hypogaeic habits of the workers and the huge size 

 of the males, and especially of the females. The remarkable dimor- 

 phism of the female sex, which reaches its extremest development in 

 Carebara, the fertile female of which is more than a thousand times as 

 large as the sterile female, or worker, is easily accounted for by the 

 peculiar habits. The workers are compelled to remain dwarfs in order 

 to move about unperceived among their hosts and pass through the 



FIG. 258. Pheidole lamia. (Original.) a. Soldier; b, same in profile; c, head of 



same from front : d, worker. 



slender galleries to and from their own nests. This subterranean habit 

 is also responsible for their pale color and the vestigial condition of 

 their eyes. At the same time these anaemic pygmies are able to rear 

 such gigantic males and females because the larvae and pupae of their 

 hosts furnish an abundant supply of highly nutritious food. The 

 sexual forms retain their deep pigmentation and large eyes because they 

 mate in the sunlight like the corresponding phases of most other ants. 

 E. Phylacobiosis. This term is applied by Wasmann (i9Oi-'o2) to 

 the relations supposed to exist between the Brazilian Camponotus ter- 

 mitarius and Entermes fulviccps, Anoplotermes atcr and morio. The 

 Camponotus is said to nest only in the hills of these termites and as it 

 seems to be on friendly terms with them, Wasmann is of the opinion 

 that it acts as a guard or protection (" eine Art Schutztruppe "). This 

 case, however, like many of the other compound nests, is in need of 



