ALIEN ASSOCIATES AND AFFINITIES 



which the change occurs. It moves back and forth, 

 around and around, issuing from the mouth-parts the 

 liquid silk that hardens about its snug house of change 

 until that is complete, when it falls into the quiet of 

 pupation. 



What becomes of its Dipteron yoke-fellow during these 

 movements? Surely they could not be wrought with 

 that encumbrance upon it? No; it has disappeared. 

 Whither? The mystery was solved by opening an ant 

 cocoon. Therein lay the Metopina safely and snugly 

 tucked away in its own little puparium lodged in the 

 posterior pole of the cocoon. It had dropped off its 

 host's neck, had taken station close by the opposite end, 

 and had been wrapped within the silken sarcophagus. 

 Thereto it had attached itself, had wrought out of its 

 own larval skin an envelope (it is not a spinner like the 

 ant), and in that it pupated. The quarters were large 

 enough for both occupants. 



Now follows another interesting chapter in our story 

 of these humble lives. Duly the time comes when Nature 

 bids the transformed antling break forth from its silken 

 coffin. It makes with its mandibles a rent at the an- 

 terior pole, favored, it may be, as with other species, 

 with the obstetrical aid of worker nurses. It creeps out, 

 and, though still a callow, is soon numbered among the 

 active members of the commune. The empty cocoon 

 case is carried by the workers to the common dumping- 

 ground for w r aste products of the commune. 



But what, meanwhile, has befallen Metopina ? In the 



struggles of the antling to get out, and from the cutting 



and tearing of the nurses to deliver it, has the young 



Dipteron escaped injury? Fortunately it so "happens" 



-if that be the lawful word that its puparium is in- 



239 



