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Sclectc^ notes from the motc^Boohs of the 

 postal riDicro6copical Society. 



nD^rmecopbclou0 Heart. 



By E. Bostock. Plates X. and XI. 



I AM circulating in the present box a number of slides contain- 

 ing objects collected by myself during the early part of 1891, 

 and subsequently, in various localities, and, as I believe that 

 none of them have been previously sent round, I trust they may 

 prove of some interest to our members, especially as some of them 

 have only recently been described, and possibly one or two of 

 them may be altogether new. 



They consist mainly of Myrmecophelous Acari, obtained from 

 the nests of ants of various species in the Riviera, Corsica, and 

 the Tyrol, and subsequently at home, as the result of various raids 

 upon the domiciles of the unfortunate ants. They serve to illus- 

 trate to some extent how very numerous are the varieties of other 

 creatures that are collected, protected, and nurtured by these for- 

 midable and omnivorous animals. 



The question as to how they come to be found in the nests of 

 the various ants is an interesting one, and one to which I have so 

 far met with no satisfactory answer. Whether the ants carry them 

 there, or whether they happen along "promiscuous like," and com- 

 ing across the nests they find them comfortable abodes, and so are 

 induced to remain, is doubtful ; but one thing is quite clear, that 

 when they are there, they are certainly tolerated by their formid- 

 able hosts, and this probably on account of services rendered in 

 the shape of general scavengering or in some other manner. At 

 the same time, it is not a little singular that most of the different 

 forms are found associated with a particular kind of ant, and 

 though they may not always be met with in all nests of that one 

 kind, they are «<?/ met with, so far as my experience goes, outside 

 and away from these nests, and this would hardly be the case if 

 the Acari gathered from the surrounding neighbourhood into the 

 ants' nests in which they happen to be found. At the same time, 

 and be this how it may, I am inclined to the opinion that, so far 



