^93 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



saying, that with this knowledge they have ceased to trouble 

 themselves about evils they cannot divert ? 



An Englishman's experience of ants may be that they frequent 

 dryish and rather sunny places, but the insects on the southern 

 border of the Mediterranean basin suffer at seasons from great 

 drought, accompanied with a high temperature, so that to be in 

 moistened places in the hot season necessitates the residence at 

 other periods in situations which are exceedingly damp. Thus 

 the western and northern slopes of the hills of moderate 

 elevation in Algerian latitudes are much more frequented by 

 insects of ground habits than those of a southern aspect ; but 

 this remark will not apply to the higher ranges of the Atlas. 

 During February and March I have turned over stones on 

 the slopes, and in doing so have let surface-water into the 

 galleries made by the ants, which has flooded their nests. 

 This happened this spring, both at Hamman Rirha and Tangier. 



During the season of my visit to Algeria and Morocco, nearly 

 every nest of A2)h(enogaster had larvae in it, and the ant was at 

 its busiest in rearing them, but I failed to find the larva of Atta, 

 on which some species of the Histeridse are said to feed, and 

 cannot say therefore whether Sternocoelis feeds on them also. 

 As Atta is a very large ant, it may be a more southern type of 

 the family, and it may lay its eggs later in the spring, so I 

 cannot give any experiences of it as an " ant-host." By the 

 middle of May the sun heats the stones, the soil becomes 

 parched, and the Aplicenogaster either becomes solitary or the 

 colonies retire to cooler places. Information on this matter is 

 of much interest to me, as I have been unable to learn what 

 becomes of the Histeridse (if in the imago), in the hot months of 

 summer and autumn. In October I believe the beetles may 

 again be found, but whether Aj^hcenogaster has two broods 

 of larvae at different seasons of the year, or one or two in the 

 spring, I should like Hymenopterists to tell us. 



Of the early stages of the formicarious Histerids, or of their 

 habits prior to becoming adults I believe nothing is known. 



In the last stage they have retractile heads, and tarsi and 

 antenn£e which can be drawn into grooves, and are thus preserved 

 in a great measure from any chance of mutilation of their 

 appendages, even from species of their own sort ; but if the ants 

 could get at their larvae, a very different situation would be 



