MYRMECOPHILOUS NOTES FOR 1911. 99 



strange ^ s would be killed and the niites transfer themselves to my 

 old ^ s in the nest. To my surprise, however, the strange ants were 

 readily accepted by those already in the nest. (I may mention that 

 this also took place with strange ^ s from the L. umhratus nest at 

 Wellington College.) One of the mites on a Woking ant solicited one- 

 of the Weybridge ants for food, and the latter immediately fed it. I 

 found the Antennoplwri often transferred themselves to the young 

 callows soon after they had been extricated from their cocoons. The 

 callows often tried to get rid of the mites, falling on their backs and 

 rolling on the ground, but eventually got reconciled to their fate. On 

 May 22nd I took some of my workers with Antennoiihori on them to 

 Crawley, and we introduced them into his L. niiibratns nest, and again 

 his workers fed the mites on my ants. When an ant is feeding at the- 

 honey in the nest, and has a mite on its chin, the latter gets to one side 

 of the ant's head to allow it to feed. When two ants feed each other, 

 if one has a mite on it, the mite leans forward and seems to share the 

 meal. I have now found all the four known European species in 

 Britain ; Wheeler*^ described two new species, A. trasmaiini and A. 

 donisthorpel on ants in America, and suggests that in this genus the $ 

 only lays one egg at a time, which she fixes to the ant infested by her, 



Aphidae. — Famdetes ciiiiiciforiina, E. Heyd. — Crawley and I found 

 this species in numbers in nests of TetrcDiiorittni caespitioii, a,t St. Issey, 

 Cornwall, on April 25th. I have previously^" found it with the same 

 ant at Whitsand Bay. Crawley'" records a creamy white Aphis with 

 long hind legs, which it waves whenever an ant solicits it, in L. niijer 

 nests near Oxford, and suggests it may be Paracletes. This, however, 

 is not the case, I have taken the same Aphis in some numbers with 

 L. niger at Islip near Oxford, on May 13th 1910. It is one of many 

 species of Myrmecophilous Aphidae I have not yet been able to get 

 named. 



Araneina. — Micarisoina nriniinits, C.L.K. — I found this spider 

 again this year with F. fusca at Box Hill, on April 4th and 22ud, and 

 in a nest of M. scahrinodis on the latter date. Randell Jackson who 

 records*" it, with a plate, joined me at Box Hill on May 14th, and 

 took a fair number of specimens under stones, etc. The day was very 

 wet and the ants' nest a failure. 



Thi/reosthenins biovata, Camb., occurred as usual in most of the 

 b . r 11 fa nests I worked, including Wellington College, on May 6th. 

 On November 20th, a <? and on December 1st, a 5 , bred out of 

 my F. riifa nest. I introduced them on those dates into my F. rufa 

 and F. fusca. vat. fuscu-riifibarbis mixed nest. They walked about 

 amongst the ants, were not attacked and did not attack the ants. They did 

 not jump aside when they met an ant, as I have noticed this spider do 

 before. On December 19th, both spiders were alive and well. The 

 ? made a small web in a corner of the nest and sat in it, but the 

 <? was generally among the ants. No ants got intangled in the web 

 and none have been killed. The <? is dead to-day, December 27th, 

 possibly for want of food as there is nothing for them to eat ; it lived 

 however for over a month in this small nest. 



35 Psyche., xvii., 1910, pp. Sand 5. 



80 Ent. Rec, 1910, p. 16. 



37 Ent. Rec, 1911, p. 24. 



'>8 Lanes. Nat., 1911, pp. 385-6. 



