MYRMECOPHILOaS NOTES FOR 1912, 91 



thinks they are chance quests. It seems, however, advisable to record 

 this rare species in ants' nests, as it may have a strong tendency 

 towards the Myrmecophilous habit, especially a5 Mulsant^' originally 

 recorded it as occurring in company with''Lasiiis brinDtetis a,t Avenas in 

 the Beaujolais Mountains. 



Batris(jil('ti venimtns, Reich. — My friend Dr. Nicholson having- 

 kindly told me he had taken this beetle in an ants' nest in a tree 

 stump in Epping Forest, and having given me a plan of the spot, I 

 decided to go and investigate the matter. Accordingly, on April 4th, 

 I went, and found the tree stump was inhabited by a strong colony of 

 ^. pisra. Six specimens of the beetle, as well as what I consider to 

 be its larva, were found in the galleries of the ants, in the heart of 

 the nest, no specimens occurring away from the ants. 1 consider this 

 species to be a regular Myrmecophile. Kraatz^'' records it with F. 

 viifa, F. fused, find^L. fidif/inosHs, and Von Hagens^'' with i L. britnnens, 

 and Ganglbauer, Reitter, Roger, etc., all record it with ants on the 

 Continent. Wasmann^" says it feeds on mites in ants' nests, and is 

 an indifferently treated lodger. 



I know of the following records with ants in Britain: — In a nest of 

 21. scabrinmlix, in Yorkshire (Smith''^), sub B. foriiiicarii(s. P" have 

 dealt with this record in my paper on the Genus Mi/rwica. With L. 

 ftiUf/inomni at Cambridge (Crotch'-'), and in Sherwood Forest and at 

 Ulting near Maldon (Fowler-'-j. In ants' nests (EUis^^). With L. 

 fnli(/i)insux, Tilgate Forest (Donisthorpe'^'), and at Cothill near Oxford 

 (Collins--'). 



A»}jihotis uianjinata, F. — Several specimens having been found in 

 a nest of L. fitlii/inosiis (the normal host) at Wellington College on 

 September 28th, one of them was introduced into my observation nest 

 of L. Hwbratiia var. fiii.cto-iimbratns. It ran about in the nest, and 

 ducked down when it met an ant, its shape entirely protecting it. It 

 soon gained the inner chambers, in one of the two of which it 

 generally remains. It has lived with these strange ants for nearly five 

 months, being alive and well to-day. There is evidently something 

 attractive about the beetle, as the ants are continually observed to lick 

 it and gently scrape at it with their jaws. This is not unpleasing to 

 the beetle, as it then sits with the head and thorax partly raised, and 

 the antennfp exposed, whereas when attacked or fiightened it crouches 

 fiat, with the antennn? and legs drawn in under the wide margins of 

 the thorax and elytra. On October 27th I saw it fed by its hosts. 

 Fresh honey had been given to them in the last (the driest, light) 

 chamber, nearly all the ants had streamed out to it, and a few kept 



15 Opusc. Entom., 1861, pp. 67-69. 



i« Stett. Ent. Ztg., 1849, p. 187. 



" Berlin Entom. Zeitschr., ix., 1865, p. i: 



18 loc. cit., p. 92. 



13 Trans. Ent. Soc. Loud., 1855, p. 116. 



•^0 Ent. Rec. 1913, p. 45. 



21 ZooL, 1862, p. 8140. 



22 Col. Brit. Isles., III., 1889, p. 93. 



23 Vic. Hist. Worcester, 1901, p. 98. 

 2-' 'Trans. Lanes, and Ches. Ent. Soc, 

 25 Col. Oxford, 2nd Sup., 1910, p. 5. 



1905, p. 42. 



