96 BRITISH APHIDES. 



work, whilst being fed and caressed by their indus- 

 trious but less showy hosts ? 



Mr. Frederick Smith has shown how some of our 

 active industrious bees (Andrenidee) tolerate the 

 presence, and, indeed, seem to have friendly relations 

 with the maurauding and destructive bee-wasps 

 (Nomada), which are permitted to enter their sand 

 burrows, and steal the food stored for the use of the 

 young Andrena.* 



Prof. Westwood some years ago showed how For- 

 mica flava stores certain blind beetles, as Clavager 

 Duvallii, in their nests ; and solely, it would appear to 

 him, for the sake of feeding on a gummy secretion 

 which exudes from the bristles at the termination of 

 their elytra. f 



More recently Markel counted no less than fifty 

 separate species of Coleoptera in the Ants' nests of 

 Switzerland, many of which were quite blind, their 

 eyes becoming obsolete and useless in the darkness of 

 their subterranean dwellings. 



M. Lespes regards these beetles as real domestic 

 animals, and he has recorded several curious observa- 

 tions with reference to their economy, and that of the 

 ants with which they consort. J 



It is remarkable that hitherto Clavager Duvallii has 

 only been discovered in the nests of Latins niger. But 

 nests of this ant do not always contain such beetles; 

 and if the last are forcibly introduced they usually 

 are immediately killed and eaten by the inhabitants. 

 The suggestion has been accordingly made, that some 

 communities of Lasius are not so far advanced in 

 civilisation as others, and that they have not yet 

 developed the hospitable virtues. They are still, in 

 short, barbarians. 



# Vide Introduction to the British Apidsc, ' Cat. Brit. Hymenop. 

 Brit. Museum.' by F. Smith, pt. 1, p. 210. 



f Westwood's ' Int. to Modern Class, of Insects,' i, p. 176, and ii, 

 p. 234. 



X Vide Denny and Lespes, ' Annals and Ma£. Nat. History, ' vol. i, 

 2nd ser.. ]'. 240 ; also 'Ann. des Scien. Natur.,' 18G3. 



