186 Coleopterological Notices. 



APPENDIX. 



Contributions to the American Termitopiiilous Fauna. 



The species recently described in these Annals under the name 

 Termitogaster insolens, was the beginning of a series of discoveries 

 by Mr. J. Beaumont, in connection with certain studies in the life 

 habits of Termes and its allied genera. 



The specimens of the species named above, were found incident- 

 ally by Mr. Beaumont in the galleries of termites, and were trans- 

 mitted by him, together with the neuropterous specimens serving 

 in part as the basis of a recent paper by Mr. P. H. Dudley, which 

 has just been published in the Transactions of this Academy. When 

 the attention of Mr. Beaumont was called to the importance of his 

 discovery, a more careful and systematic search was instituted, 

 resulting in the capture of several very small specimens which have 

 been placed in my hands for study by Mr. Dudley. These, as will 

 be seen below, are found to represent two entirely new and very 

 interesting genera, and, in addition, a new species of Termito- 

 gaster. 



The coleoptera associated with the termites appear to be more 

 specialized and more intimately connected with the life habits of 

 their hosts than is the case with the more numerous m3n'mecophi- 

 lous species, and their taxonomy is more difficult to a corresponding- 

 degree. 



If any generalization can be made upon the little already known 

 of these curious genera, it would appear that, having become so pro- 

 foundly modified from the more usual types, — as seen for instance 

 in Spirachtha, which is one of the most remarkable instances of 

 adaptive development at present known, — it may be legitimate to 

 suppose that the neuropterous termites are an older type geologi- 

 cally than the hymenopterous ants, whose coleopterous guests are 

 generally less radically modified. This is of course under the 

 supposition that the rapidity of evolution or adaptation has been 

 approximately constant in the two cases, and that the coleoptera 

 are either intermediate in age between the termites and the ants, or 

 that they are the most ancient of the three. The truth is, probably, 



