11-2 



PSYCHE. 



[October, igoo. 



by Mr. Scudder,* it was known to 

 occur in Minnesota (Lugger), Nebraska 

 (Bruner) and New Mexico (Cockerell). 

 Tlie addition of one of the Gulf states, 

 in wliich no members of tlie genus liad 

 been found, carries the species to its 

 southernmost boundary. Heretofore it 

 has been taken only in the nests of 

 Formica exsectoides Forel (in New Mex- 

 ico) and with some ants which Bruner 

 incorrectly referred to F. rtifa. Per- 

 gande believes that it " equally fre- 

 quents the colonies of Formica puberula 

 Em., Form, intcgroides Em., Form, ruhi- 

 ginosa Em. and possibly other forms 

 belonging to the great Rufa group."! 



The males of the European species 

 of Myrmecophila are so rare as to be 

 almost unknown. Scudder says (loc. 

 cit., p. 428): "Although two species of 

 the genus are known in Europe, and 

 one of them is not uncommon, Brunner 

 von Wattenwyl says the male is un- 

 known to him, Saussure has but once 

 seen one, and this was destroyed before 

 he could describe the genitalia, and 

 Fischer of Freiburg has seen the males 

 of one species only, and in his classical 

 work refers to it only by the words : 

 " lam. supraanalis mihi non rite visa. " 

 It is, however, figured in Cuvier's Regne 

 Anim., Disc. ed. pi. 82, fig 2." Even 

 Wasmann, who has devoted special 

 study to the guests of ants, cites the 

 medium sized individuals of the Euro- 

 pean M. accrvonim as doubtfully be- 



longing to the male sex.* In the 

 United States, however, the males of 

 Myrmecophila are not uncommon. 

 Among forty specimens Scudder found 

 sixteen males, and these represented all 

 but one of the five North American 

 species. 



The males of M. ncbrasccnsis are very 

 common at Austin. They bear to the 

 females, I should say, the ratio of about 

 one to seven or eight. That the some- 

 what smaller individuals without oviposi- 

 tors and with a large, apically cleft sub- 

 genital plate are really the males is shown 

 in sections. During April and May 

 the testes, in active spermatogenesis, to- 

 gether with a huge accessory gland con- 

 sisting of a radiating tuft of tubules, fill 

 out nearly the whole abdominal cavity 

 of the insect. The gland must have 

 some important function connected with 

 reproduction but this could not be de- 

 termined. 



At this same period of the year the 

 abdomen of the female Myrmecophila is 

 found to contain a few very large ellip- 

 tical white eggs, in form and size not 

 unlike the eggs of the ants among which 

 the crickets live. I have not been able 

 to observe the insect in the act of ovi- 

 positing. She probably thrusts her eggs 

 into the moist compact soil that forms 

 the walls of the galleries of the ants ' 

 nest. The eggs must hatch about the 

 first of June, as I have seen the young, 

 about one fifth to one fourth grown by 



*loc. cit. p. 427. 



t Scudder, loc. cit. p. 42S. 



*Kritisches Verzeichniss der myrmekopliilen imd ter- 

 mitoplulen Anliropoden. Berlin, 1894, p. 176. 



