ANT COMMUNITIES 



violet, yellow, and black, with iridescent wings. This 

 polychromatic creature, when seen among its ruddy hosts, 

 amid the shining red and black seeds stored for food (the 

 ant being a harvester), gives a brilliant appearance to 

 the nest. But it is a beauty which bears the germs of 

 death to those who cherish the possessors. 



The mother Orasema posits her numerous eggs upon 

 the under surface of bodies of the young ant pupae, 



(By courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History) 



Fig. 87 ORASEMA VIRIDIS 



A parasite in various stages of development on the surface of 



the ant Pheidole instabilis 



near the head. She chooses for this the pupse of the 

 large forms soldiers, females and males not the small 

 workers, as having the richest store of nutriment. Here 

 the parasites cling and grow rapidly, feeding upon the 

 juices of their host. When the parasites reach the pupal 

 stage within two or three days they are released by 

 the worker-ants from their host, now a lifeless mass. 

 Thenceforward they are objects of special care by the 

 Pheidole workers, who tend them as their own offspring, 

 not only in the pupal, but in the imago stage. Indeed, 

 so great is this infatuation or delusion that, as in the 

 case of the Lomechusan beetles, when a nest is disturbed 



234 



