EDW. JACOBSON, PTILOCKHUS OCHRACEUS. 177 



small cage with glass windows, specially coustructed for the 

 observation of insects. 



The bugs had fasted for about a week, the only thing I 

 had given them being pure water, sprinkled in their cage, 

 and which they readily absorbed. They were however none 

 the worse for the fasting, only a few of the many hundreds 

 I had captured having died. 



As described in Mr. Kirkaldy's paper, the bug possesses a 

 very curious tuft of yellow hair (a trichome), situated on the 

 under-side of the body, which apparently secretes some sub- 

 stance with a flavour agreeable to the ants. 



The way in which the bugs proceed to entice the ants is 

 as follows. They take up a position in an ant-path or ants 

 find out the abodes of the bugs, and attracted by their secre- 

 tion visit them in great numbers. 



On the approach of an ant of the species Volichoderus 

 bitubercidatus the bug is at once on the alert; it raises half 

 way the front of the body, so as to put the trichome in 

 evidence. As far as my observations goes the bugs only show 

 a liking for Doliohoderus bitubercidatus ; several other species 

 of ants, e. g. Creitiastogaster diformis Smith and others, which 

 were brought together wit them, were not accepted ; on the 

 contrary, on the approach of such a stranger, the bug inclined 

 is body forwards, pressing down its head; the reverse there- 

 fore of the inviting attitude taken up towards Dolichoderus 

 bituberculatus. In meeting the latter the bug lifts up its front 

 legs, folding them in such a manner that the tarsi nearly 

 meet below the head. The ant at once proceeds to lick the 

 trichome, pulling all the while with its mandibles at the tuft 

 of hairs, as if milking the creature, and by this manipulation 

 the body of the bug is continually moved up and down. 



At this stage of the proceedings the bug does not yet 

 attack the ant; it only takes the head and thorax of its 

 victim between its frontlegs, as if to make sure of it; very 



