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COLEOPTERA. 



Observations on the Myrmecophilous Coleoptera, 

 or Ants-Nest Beetles of Britain. Accompanied 

 by plain Instructions for obtaining them, and a 

 List of the Species hitherto ascertained as in- 

 digenous. 



By Edward W. Janson, Sec. Ent. Soc. 



Most of my readers are doubtless aware that ants, however 

 hostile to their fellow insects in general, evince the greatest 

 amity for others, with whom they not only share their habi- 

 tations, but watch with the greatest solicitude ; bearing them 

 tenderly back should they stray aboard, and hurrying them 

 off to the innermost recesses of their subterranean burrows 

 on the approach of danger ; I allude to Claviger testaceus, 

 Preyssler (foveolatus, Mull., Westw., Steph.), and Atemeles 

 emarginatus, Grav. {paradoxus, Steph.), which have long 

 since found a place in our lists, and whose habits have been 

 familiarly described in our own language. But perhaps few 

 are prepared to learn that nearly fifty species of Coleoptera 

 have been ascertained by continental Entomologists to pass 

 at least a portion of their lives exclusively in the nests of 

 various species of ants. Such, however, is the fact elicited 

 by the assiduous investigations of Aube and Chevrolat in 

 France ; the two Maerkels, von Kiesenwetter, Grimm and 

 others in Germany ; Mannerheim in Finland ; Schiodte in 

 Denmark, and Motschoulsky in Russia. 



