BEHAVIOR OF ANTS 423 



be the normal occurrence in ants. In these insects, on the 

 contrary, polyandry seems to be the rule. Forel long ago (1874) 

 observed the fecundation of a single queen by several males 

 in Lasius flavus, Leptothorax acervorum, L. tuberum, Myrmica 

 scabrinodis, and M. lohicornis. Santschi describes in detail the 

 same occurrence in Monomorium salowionis and Solenopsis lou. 

 The queen of these ants during her nuptial flight is surrounded 

 by several males, each of whom mates with her for less than a 

 minute. In M. salomonis, after mating for 30-40 seconds the 

 queen was seen to drive the male away by biting the tip of its 

 abdomen, and then submitted to another male. Santschi believes 

 that polyandry is the rule, especially in species with small males, 

 and that it is a means of filling the spermatheca of the queen 

 with a large quantity of sperm. This is probably a necessity in 

 species which produce very populous colonies from the ova of 

 a single queen, but it does not explain the conditions in Lepto- 

 thorax and Myrmica which, though polyandric, nevertheless live 

 in small colonies and sometimes have several fertile queens in 

 a colony. 



Schimmer "" replies to Wasmann's criticism "* of his views 

 on the "instinct of toleration" in ants. Wasmann has long 

 been of the opinion that the toleration of certain myrmeco- 

 philes and parasites by ants is due to a possession by the latter 

 of special "symphilic instincts." The existence of these is 

 denied by Schimmer, who holds, especially in the cases of the 

 tiny cricket Myrmecophila and the beetle Dinarda, which he 

 has studied most thoroughly, that the adaptations to myrme- 

 cophily are on the part of the myrmecophiles themselves and 

 not of their hosts. A "physical correlation" on the part of 

 the hosts could be produced only by a selective action of the 

 myrmecophiles, and this has not been shown to exist. 



Schmitz "^ discusses the- relations of the myrmecophilous 

 beetles of the genus Atemeles to their hosts. Like the American 

 XenoduscB, the European species of Atemeles are heteroecious, 

 i. e., they have two hosts, since they live and breed with species 

 of Formica during the summer and hibernate with species of 

 Myrmica nesting in the same localities. Wasmann has given 

 various interpretations of these host relationships. In 1899 

 he believed that the Atemeles could not breed with Myrmica, 

 because this ant has naked pupae, and therefore did not have 



