136 • rJune, 



NABIS LATIVENTRIS Boh.. A MYEMECOPHILOUS INSECT. 

 BY HORACE DONISTHOEPK, F.Z.S., F.E.S., ETC. 



I was very much interested in Mr. E. A. Butler's valuable paper on 

 Nabis lativeniris Boh. {antea, pp. 57-Gl : 79-81), in which he relates for 

 the first time a great deal of the life-history of this Heniipteron. 



I am personally, however, more concerned with its occurrence with 

 ants, and can add several more records of such cases than those men- 

 tioned by Butler. 



Reuter (1879) found the larva in company with a Mijrmica species 

 in the South of France. 



Wasmann (1894) records the species with Acanthoniyops [Dendro- 

 lasius) fidujinosus from Dutch Limburg, and with a Myvmica species 

 from the North of France. 



Janet (1897) quotes the above records, and writes : — *' C'est sans 

 doute un myrmecoide myrmecophage." 



Wasmann (1898) found the brachypterous form in numbers with a 

 large colony of Acantlwmyops {Demlrolasius) fully iiiosus at Wynands- 

 rade, near Valkenburg, in July 1887 ; and he considers this form to be 

 myrmecophilous, as it has also been found elsewhere with ants. He 

 mentions that Father Handmann also took it in some numbers with 

 Acanthoniyops {Donisthorpea) niyer at Travnik in Bosnia. He says 

 the bug is probably a " miereneter." 



Wasmann (1899), in a paper on the ants and myrmecophiles taken by 

 Handmann in Bosnia during the summer of 1899, says it was taken in 

 several nests of A. (-D.) niyer at Travnik on July 21:th, and, further, 

 in a nest of Formica cinerea on August 3rd. He remarks that it can 

 be regarded with more or less certainty as a myrmecophile. 



Sharp (1899), after describing the resemblance of the larva of this 

 bug to an ant, and figuring the older form which does not possess the spines, 

 writes : — " The bug runs about on plants and flowers, and is frequently 

 in company with ants, but we do not know whether it preys on them. Not 

 the least remarkable of the facts connected with this insect is that the 

 resemblance is confined to the earlier instars, the adult bug not being 

 like an ant. We may here mention that there are numerous bugs that 

 closely resemble ants, and that on the whole there is reason to believe 

 that the resembling forms are actually associated during life, though we 

 really know very little as to this point." 



