and Ancestral Form of Myrmecophilous ColeopUra. 409 



Wood (Fowler), Stoke Wood, Devon (Parfitt) ; and I have 

 taken it with L. fuliginosus at Tilgate Forest. Both this 

 species and the last seem to be rare on the Continent and 

 are not recorded with ants. 



Euthia plicata, GylL, has also been recorded from ants' 

 nests here, and Ganglbauer writes " also in nests of 

 Formica rufa and exsecta." I am inclined to doubt if 

 many of the British records are the true plicata, Gyll., 

 at all. 



Trichonyx sulcicollis, Reich. 



It was taken by Douglas and Scott in old elm stumps 

 at Lee in company with ants, but most of the records in 

 this country appear to be away from ants. Mons. Bedell 

 records it with Ponera contracta near Paris, and Herr 

 Reitter with Lasius hrunneiis. Our other species, T. 

 mdrkeli, is almost always taken with ants, and I suspect 

 that this species also is truly myrmecophilous. 



Ptenidium turgidum, Th., and P. grcssiieri, Er., have both 

 been recorded with ants. Fowler writes of the former, 

 " in rotten wood, usually in company with ants," and of 

 the latter, " in rotten wood, chiefly in company with 

 Formica fidiginosa.^' I have taken gressneri in a nest of 

 Lasius fuliginosa in Sherwood Forest, but both these 

 species are much more generally found away from ants. 



Histcr marginatus, Er., was taken by Harvvood with both 

 Formica rufa and Lasius fuliginosus at Colchester. Dr. 

 Joy, however, has shown it is a moles'-nest species, where 

 it is often abundant, and widely distributed. 



Dendrophilus picnctatus, Hbst. 



"In dead animals, rotten wood, etc., and also in the 

 nests of Formica fuliginosa" (Fowler, iii, p. 207). 



Janson recorded it with F. rufa (Ent. Ann., 1857, 

 p. 95). I took it with the same ant at Weybridge, and 

 have bred it out of my observation nests of Lasius fuli- 

 ginosus from Wellington College, and Formica cxsccta from 

 Bournemouth. It is frequently found in birds' nests ; Joy 

 treats of it in his Class B (those species which are com- 

 monly found in the nests and breed there, but also are 

 found and breed elsewhere), and write;? (E. M. M., 1906, 

 p. 246), " found in almost any old nest, even if it is quite 

 dry.'' 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. LOND. 1909. — PART III. (SEPT.) E E 



