OBSERVATIONS ON THE MYRMECOPHILOUS COLEOPTERA. 93 



On the first warm days in May, Atemeles emarginatus 

 and paradoxus makes its appearance on banks tenanted by 

 this ant, and may be seen running in the vicinity of the nests 

 hotly pursued by its anxious guardians ; let a careful watch 

 be kept on the ants themselves, as many may be arrested on 

 their return bearing the Atemeles, complacently rolled up, 

 in their mouths. I have likewise taken, by brushing her- 

 bage in the neighbourhood of the nests of this ant, the rare 

 Aleochara ruficornis, Grav. {Ceranota Daltoni, Steph.), 

 and have little or no doubt that it is a truly Myrmecophilous 

 insect, although not hitherto recorded as such. 



Formica flava, when inhabiting meadows or the green 

 sward of the woodland, constructs its abode in and beneath 

 a hemispherical mound of earth, sometimes entirely the result 

 of its own toil, but occasionally, I have observed, it avails 

 itself of the hillocks thrown up by the mole. Where, 

 however, stones abound, it forms its nest after the fashion of 

 those of F.fusca. It is to the latter kind of nests that I 

 would especially direct the collector's notice, for all my 

 exertions have hitherto proved unavailing in the detection of 

 Myrmecophili in the mounds. 



In chalky districts, more particularly on hill sides, the flints, 

 which lie scattered in countless numbers, should be carefully 

 lifted, never omitting the precaution, if ants are observed 

 beneath, of quickly enveloping the stone in a cloth : in the 

 cells thus exposed to view the wonderful Clanger tcstaeeus, 

 Preyssler (fuveolatus, Miiller, Westw., Steph.) is found ; and 

 here I have twice met with a species of Triclionyx, con- 

 cerning the identity of which, not feeling certain, I had better 

 at present observe silence. I think it right again to remind 

 the collector, that he must watch the ants attentively as they 

 retire, for they almost invariably endeavour to carry off the 

 beetles, and that the cells being well examined, and all cavities 



