PARACOROTOOA AKERMANI (wARREN). 303 



•efficient masticatory function, but they could be used as 

 powerful pincei's. If the larvae and adult beetles subsist 

 entirely on fluid food supplied voluntarily by the worker- 

 termites we might expect that some degeneration of the 

 mandibles would have occurred. Fi'om these considerations 

 it would seem probable that any fluid food that may be 

 supplied by the termites is insufficient for the vital activities 

 of the beetle, and is supplemented by an occasional suck of 

 the body-fluids of the immature termites. It should be 

 noticed that similar, powerful, pointed mandibles are present 

 in the allied genera of termitophilous Staphylinids, e. g. 

 Termitoptochus, Termitomimus and Termitobia. 



The remarkably swollen abdomen of Paracorotoca is 

 turned upwards and forwards, and extends as far as the 

 middle of the prothorax. The morphological dorsal surface 

 of the abdomen is especially modified for resting on the 

 dorsal surface of the elytra, which are well adapted for 

 supporting the heavy, inflated structure. The alse are quite 

 rudimentary. 



In the living beetle the abdomen possesses considerable 

 power of movement, and sometimes it may be stretched 

 backwards almost in line with the head and thorax. This 

 position is a strained one, and obviously requires much 

 .muscular exertion. 



Many Staphylinids possess the power of turning their 

 abdomen forward over the thorax, and the C or ot oca- 

 condition may be regarded as an extreme exaggeration of 

 this power. 



As we shall see subsequently, the main bulk of the inflated 

 abdomen in both male and female is occupied by the greatly 

 hypertrophied sexual organs. There is a considerable amount 

 of fat-tissue, but the characteristic featui-e of the abdominal 

 organs is the great size of the reproductive apparatus. In 

 the case of the female this is not due to any exceptionally 

 large number of ova, but to the relatively huge size of the 

 individual eggs filled with large yolk-globules. The large 

 size of the eggs is almost certainly associated with a viviparous 



