1919] Wheeler — The Phoresy of Antkeropkagus 149 



gether with Packard's show that our species are very similar in 

 habits to their European cousins. Though possessed of well- 

 developed wings and able to fly about and take up their position 

 on flowers, Antherophagus does not seek out the Bomhiis nests but 

 compels the bee to carry it to the place in which its eggs and larvae 

 are to develop. As Sharp says, "we must presume that its senses 

 and instincts permit it to recognize the bee, but do not suffice to 

 enable it to find the bee's nest." The structure of the mandibles 

 and the peculiar notch in the clypeus are clearly adaptations to 

 firmly grasping the more or less cylindrical joints of the bee's 

 appendages, and the red color of the integument and investment 

 of golden yellow hairs, so very suggestive of conditions in many 

 myrmecophilous beetles, may account for the fact that the Anthe- 

 rophagi live unmolested in the Bombus nests. 



The feeding habits of the adult and larval Antherophagus seem 

 not to have been actually observed by any of the authors mentioned 

 in the preceding paragraphs. Packard (1864) beheved it "prob- 

 able from the fondness, which these insects manifest for the sweets 

 of flowers, that they visit the nests of the bees for the purpose of 

 consuming the honey stored up within them." In 1873, however, 

 he inferred that the beetle "probably feeds upon the wax and 

 pollen," a statement which seems to have been suggested by the 

 generic name given by Latreille. The views of the various authors 

 concerning the feeding habits of the larva are, with one excep- 

 tion, practically unanimous. Perris (1875) says: "The larvae of 

 Antherophagus probably play the same role in the humble-bee 

 ne.sts as do Cryptophagus pubescens and scanicus in the nests of 

 wasps. I do not believe that they devour the honey stored up by 

 the bees or that they attack the bee larvae, not one of which showed 

 the slightest lesion; I am convinced that they live on the feces of 

 the inhabitants and that they are, properly speaking, merely 

 scavengers." In the same paper he calls attention to the larva of 

 Cryptophagus dentatus Herbst which lives under chestnut bark in 

 company with the larva of Dryoco'tus villosus and feed on its excre- 

 ment. Lesne (1896) states that the Antherophagus larvae "live as 

 mutualists rather than as commensals in the Bombus nests." In 

 contrast with this rather vague and colorless statement, Wagner 

 (1907) paints a lurid picture of the activities of the beetle and its 

 larvae. After describing the transportation of the beetle on the 



