NOTES ON THE BRITISH MYRJIECOPHILOUS FAUNA. 37 



It is to be hoped that more attention will be.sfiveu to this nej^'lected 

 order of insects during the coming year, and that by careful and con- 

 scientious work greater progress may be made in 1902 than has taken 

 place in 1901. 



Notes on the British Myrmecophilous fauna (excluding Coleopteraj. 



By HOKACE DONISTHOKPE, F.Z.S., E.E.S. 

 {(Jontinued fr(»ii p. 18). 



Orthoptera. — Ahjrwcroplu'la accrroniin, Pauz. — Burr (Knt. Itecnnl, 

 1899, p. 187) calls attention to the fact that Westwood recorded 

 this insect from Netley, where it had been taken in moss, but that 

 further evidence is necessary to confirm it as British. Wasmann [lor. rit. 

 p. 176) records it from north and mid-Europe. The big form ( $ adult) 

 and medium ( 3 ?) with Formica fiisca and F. san;/iii)iea ; also with 

 Lasiiis niijer, L. alicnus, MyrDiica laeviuadis, and Tctramoriiiiii caespitinn. 

 If ants' nests were only more thoroughly worked in this country, it is 

 possible that this interesting httle species would be found, and so 

 confirm the old record. 



Neuroptera. — Neuroptera-Planipennia. — Heiiierobiiifi, sp. — I 

 took several specimens of the curious larvfe of a species of this genus 

 in the nest of Tmsjus fidiiiinosKx at Oxshott. They cover their bodies 

 with the remains of their prey. As they feed on Aphidae it is probable 

 that they were after the plant-lice of the ants. 



Pseudoneuroptera. — PsociD.E. — CacriUns fiavidiis, Steph. — Early 

 in the year I took the very young larvae in the nests of Las'ms fulifii- 

 ■nosKs and Foiiiiica rufa at Oxshott; later I took the nymph in the same 

 nest of the former, and in October a fair number of the perfect insect 

 in the same nest. The $ s laid their eggs shortly after capture in the 

 tubes in which they were confined ; this suggests that the eggs would 

 be laid in the nest. I have been told that this is a common insect and 

 has nothing to do with ants, but it seems to me worthy of record, as 

 the creature passed its earlier stages in the nests. Hagen has 

 described a Psocid, Atropos formicaria, with this same ant in Prussia. 



Rhynchota. — Heteroptera. — Ali/dtiR cidcaratKs, L. — Saunders 

 {Hrmip. fJcttrop. of the Ih\ Isles, p. 52) says this species is often found 

 in company with Formica rufa. Wasmann {loc. cit., p. 179) records it 

 from the nests of F rufa and /•'. r)ijiharl)is in Holland; the larva with 

 Myrmica ndjra and the nymph with /''. sawjidnea in Finland. 



Piezostet/iKs formicetornm, Boh. — White {Scot. Xat., 1871, 2, p. 2(50) 

 records this species from the nests of Formica rufa at Braemar. 

 Douglas in quoting this record {Fnt. Mo. Marj., 1874-5, p. 174) remarks 

 that it was a similar habitat to that in which it was first taken by 

 Boheman. Wasmann {lor. cit., p. 181) gives its normal hosts as /• . rufa, 

 pratensis, and truncictda. 



Ml/rmedohiacoleoptrata, Fall. — Douglas {Inr. rit., p. I'M) writes: " M. 

 adeoptrata was found on a bank at Highgate in company with small 

 black ants, but not in their nests. Neither sex is like an ant, and the 

 apterous female resembles the coleopterous Alexia pilifera which was 

 found at the same time and place. But as Herr Fieiienbach found the 

 bugs in the ants' nests, it is certain that this want of similarity is no 

 bar to the safety of the lodgers." I took a J in the nest of Lasixs 

 fulijinosus at 0>iii\iott. Wasmann (/nc r/7., p. 181) mentions as its hosts 



