468 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Dec., 'll 



ANTS PARALYZED BY THE SECRETION OF A BUG.. E. Jacobson has 

 observed that a Holoptiline Heteropter, Ptilocerus ochraceus Montan- 

 don, of Java, possesses, on the underside of the second abdominal 

 segment, a tuft of yellow hair (a trichome), which apparently secretes 

 some substance with a flavor agreeable to ants of the species Dolicho- 

 derus bitubercidatus Mayr. On the approach of one of these ants, 

 "the bug is at once on the alert; it raises half-way the front of the 

 body, so as to put the trichome in evidence. * * * The ant at once 

 proceeds to lick the trichome. * * * At this stage of the proceed- 

 ings the bug does not yet attack the ant. * * * It is surprising to 

 see how the bug can restrain its murderous intention as if it was 

 knowing that the right moment had not yet arrived. After the ant 

 has indulged in licking the tuft of hair for some minutes the exuda- 

 tion commences to exercise its paralyzing effect. * * * As soon 

 as the ant shows signs of paralysis by curling itself up and drawing 

 in its legs, the bug at once seizes it with its front legs and very soon 

 it is pierced and sucked dry." (Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, liv, 

 pp. 175-179, 1911). An accompanying paper by the late G. W. Kirkaldy 

 describes and figures the Ptilocerus. 



PARASITIC ORTHOPTERA. The rareness of the parasitic habit in 

 this order of insects makes additional information concerning it very 

 welcome. The most famous Orthopterous parasite is Hemimerus, 

 for which de Saussure proposed the formation of a new order 

 Diploglossata. Prof. Dr. Richard Heymons, of the Royal Museum 

 fur Naturkunde, at Berlin, describes his observations on the habits 

 of Hemimerus talpoidcs Walk, in Heft II of the Deutsche Ento- 

 mologische Zeitschrift for 1911. Dr. Heymons kept in a cage, an 

 East African hamster-rat, Cricetomys, infested with 20-25 Hemi- 

 mci'i. The behavior of these insects with relation to their host, light 

 and food is discussed at length, and the conclusion is drawn that 

 Hemimerus can be considered as neither injurious nor useful to its 

 host. It is not regarded as a parasite in the narrower sense of the 

 word, because it does not injure the rat. On the other hand, the idea 

 of Jordan (1909) that Hemimerus and Cricetomys are symbionts 

 and that the former benefits the latter by consuming fungi found on 

 the skin of the mammal, is rejected. Heymons, indeed, found spores 

 of fungi in the alimentary canal of Hemimerus, but he believes that 

 their occurrence there and on the exterior of the host is incidental 

 to the habits of life of Cricetomys. The principal food of Hemimerus 

 is the upper horny epidermis of its host, but as the insect not in- 

 frequently leaves the rat for short excursions, it consumes other 

 things in addition, Heymons finding plant-cells and chitinous pieces 

 in its digestive tract. Hemimerus is quiescent while its host is ac- 



