MYRMECOPHILOUS NOTES. 59 



inent with more specimens taken the day before at Box Hill, in 

 nests of Mijrniica scahrinndin, the same results being obtained. This 

 simpl}' illustrated how the beetles go into quarantine when they leave 

 the Mijniiica nests in the spring, before they enter a fiii^ca nest, where 

 the eggs are laid and the larv?e develop. Wasmann" has carried out 

 more elaborate experiments to elucidate these facts, and also to prove 

 that Att'Dieles emarijinatiis goes to F. /((sco, and A. paradoxus to F. riifi- 

 harbis (and its race rutibarhiH var. fnsco-rxifibarbis) when they leave the 

 Myrmica nests. On May 20th I found the Atimeles in fusca nests at 

 Box Hill, showing they had then left the Mijniiica nests in nature. 

 On August 21st Taylor and I found this species in a Mi/nnica 

 scabrinodis nest in Parkhurst Forest, the beetle here having returned 

 to the Myrmica nests for the winter. 



Dinarda dentata, Gr. — On April 19th I found a number of this 

 species at Woking, in nests of F. sau'inineo. I introduced some of 

 them into my mnf/uinea observation nest at home, where they lived all 

 through the summer. The last specimen died on November 4th, it 

 thus having lived seven months in captivity. On May 18th a Dinarda 

 and a fusca, one of the slaves in the nest, were observed each pulling 

 at an ant larva, one of several I had given to the ants for food. When 

 the beetle found it could not drag the larva away from the ant, it 

 raised its tail over its back, and poked it in the ant's face, giving off 

 the vapour, with which I have shown the Myrmecophilous " staphs " 

 protect themselves. The ant immediately let go and hurried away, 

 the beetle carrying off the larva in triumph into a corner to devour at 

 leisure. On June 20th a ^ and $ were observed in cop. Copula- 

 tion is the same as in Atemeles, Lomechusa, and Myriiiedonia, that is, 

 the (? places his head under the body of the $ , and raises the tail 

 and bends it over his head till it reaches that of the ? . These beetles 

 were observed to eat dead ants, as well as any prey given to their hosts. 

 On May 10th I found this species very abundant in a sawiuinea nest 

 at Weybridge. It was first taken in Britain at Weybridgef by F. 

 Smith. The earlier records really referred to Z). vuirkdi and 1>. 

 pyi/))iaea. 



D. hagensi, Wasni. — On May 15th Taylor and I found a number of 

 specimens with F. exsecta in Parkhurst Forest. I introduced some 

 into my exsecta nest at home. These lived till September. This 

 colony is contained in a combined " Fielde and -Janet" nest, in which 

 are slices of damp sponge. The beetles laid their eggs in one of the 

 sponges, and larvae were hatched in July. 



Myrmedonia hiuneralis, Gr. — On December 8th, Crawley and I 

 dug up a Lasins unibratiis nest, which I had known for some time, at 

 Weybridge. In it we found two specimens of this beetle. The nest 

 was partly in the root of an old stump. Its primary host is L. 

 fiiliyinosns (secondly F. ritfa), and I am inclined to think the stump 

 had originally been inhabited by the former ant, as some of the inner 

 wood showed traces of the black colour caused by this ant in trees 

 infested by it. 



Myrmedonia laticollis, Mark. — A specimen was captured in a nest 

 of its host, L.fnliyinosus, at Darenth Wood, on May 28th, with one of 

 the ant's larvfe in its jaws. 



* Biolog. Central., 1910, xxx., p. 135. 

 t Zool. 1860, p. 7292. 



