1911] Mann — Californian Ant Guests 27 



NOTES ON THE GUESTS OF SOME CALIFORNIAN ANTS. 



By William M. Mann. 

 Stanford University, Cal. 



The following notes are based on a small collection of ants 

 and myrmecophiles made in the vicinity of Stanford University 

 during the spring of 1910. The paper does not include many 

 records, but as there are few exact data recorded concerning 

 the hosts of our western myrmecophiles, I have thought that 

 any additional notes will be worth while. 



Unless otherwise noted, all of the ant guests are from nests 

 in the low hills about a mile south of the Stanford University 

 campus. The nests of seventeen species of ants were examined 

 during the spring. Fourteen of these species entertained guests 

 or parasites. 



I am under obligations to Dr. W. M. Wheeler of Harvard 

 University who has named most of my ants, and to Prof. H. C. 

 Fall of Pasadena, for examining the type of Hetoerius ivheeleri 

 n. sp. This paper was prepared in the Entomological Labora- 

 tory of Stanford University. 



Camponotus maccooki Forel. The commonest local Cam- 

 ponotus. On March 5th, I found beneath a stone in a small 

 colony of this ant, a single specimen of Cremastochilus planatus 

 Lee. The beetle had evidently been ill treated, both hind and 

 one of the middle tarsi being gone. In a much larger colony, 

 on March 9th, two more specimens were taken. Both of these 

 were perfect. Three weeks later I revisited this nest and took 

 three more of the beetles, one of them with a leg mutilated. 



The occurrence of specimens from two nests, one of the nests 

 containing specimens during the greater part of the time that 

 C. planatus is taken, tends to show that the occurrence of this 

 species with Camponotus is not altogether accidental. On the 

 same date (March 30) I took two specimens of the same beetle 

 with Formica nifa var. occidentalis Wheeler. A week later the 

 same nest contained a flourishing colony of Camponotus, which 



