PSYCHE. 



THE HABITS OF MYRMECOPHILA NEBRASCENSIS BRUNER* 



HY WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER, AUSTIN, TEXAS. 



Among the many insects now known to 

 live as guests in the nests of ants the 

 diminutive crickets of the genus Myrme- 

 cophila are in several respects remark- 

 able. First, they are cited as the only 

 members of the great Orthopteran order 

 that have come to live with the most 

 social of the Hynienoptera t ; second, 

 the males of tiie species of Myrmecophila 

 have long been all but unknown, and 

 third, the nature of the relationship of 

 these little Gryllids to their emmet 

 hosts has not been determined up to the 

 present time. 



In the November number of Psyche 

 for 1899, Mr. Scudder publislied a 

 monograph of the known North Ameri- 

 can species of Myrmecophila. This 

 will undoubtedly encourage further work 

 on tliis interesting genus along taxo- 

 nomic lines. In the present paper I 

 wish to call attention to the peculiar 

 habits of one of tlie species, tJ/. ncb- 



* Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the 

 University of Texas. No. 7. Director, W. M. Wheeler. 



T This statement now requires qualification. In a forth- 

 coming paper I shall describe another Orthopteran genus, 

 represented by a diminutive cockroach, which lives as a 

 myrmecophile in the fungus gardens of the leaf-cutting 

 ant of Texas {^Attafcrvens Say). 



rasa-nsis Bruner, which is very common 

 in the vicinity of Austin, Texas. Here 

 it may be found in the nests of no less 

 than five very different species of ants. 

 It is most abundant in company with 

 Formica fit sea, var. nconifibarhis Mayr — 

 sometimes as many as 20 or 30 individ- 

 uals occurring in a single nest — less 

 abundant in the nests of the Texan agri- 

 cultural ant {Fogonomyrmex barbaius 

 .Sm.) — and rare in the nests of Campo- 

 notiis castanais Latr., the Ponerine Fachy- 

 condyla harpax Fab. and a species of 

 Cremastogaster. Its true host in this 

 vicinity is undoubtedly F. fiisca var. 

 neon/fibarbis, which digs its galleries 

 under stones on moderately moist hill- 

 slopes in the shade of the cedars and 

 live oaks. Since nests of all the dif- 

 ferent species of ants above mentioned 

 may be found very near one another, it 

 is probable that the crickets occasion- 

 ally seen in the nests of Pachycondyla 

 and Camponotus are vagrants that have 

 invaded strange territory. 



These data on the occurrence of Af. 

 7icbrascensis are of some interest since 

 they extend both the geographical and 

 symbiotic range of the species. Hither- 

 to, according to the data accumulated 



