398 M. C. Janet on the Relations of the 



LVIII. — On the Relations of the Myrmecophile Lepismidaa to 

 Ants. By M. Charles Janet *. 



The numerous species of animals which live in ant-hills, and 

 which for this reason have been called " Myrmecophile/' have 

 very varied relations with the ants f. 



A certain number of Staphylinidaa, such as Myrmedonia 

 funesta, which have been especially studied by Wasmann, 

 capture the ants at the entrance to their galleries or the larvae 

 in the deeper parts of the nest and devour them (myrmeco- 

 phagy) . 



Certain Nematodes plant themselves in the pharyngeal 

 glands of the Camponotida?, in order there to pass through a 

 larval stage {internal ijarasitism) ('Comptes Kendus/ t. cxvii. 

 p. 700, 1893). 



Certain Acarids attach themselves to different parts of the 

 bodies of the ants, and especially to the head and feet [external 

 parasitism) . 



A considerable number of Arthropods enter the ants' nest 

 for hardly any other purpose than to seek the detritus, of 

 which they are able to make some use, or to find there favour- 

 able conditions for their existence, and they are treated with 

 indifference by their hosts. This is the case with a little 

 Isopod Crustacean, Platyarthrus Hoff'manseggi, which is so 

 common in ant-hills all over Europe. This cohabitation in 

 the same nest of a myrmecophile species with ants has been 

 called synoeketism when there is no direct relation between 

 them. 



Many of the Staphylinidse and Pselaphida3 live normally 

 in ants' nests. They bear on the dorsal region tufts of hair, 

 corresponding with certain glands the secretion of which is 

 much sought after by the ants, who, in exchange for it, pour 

 out for them voluntarily before their mouths a liquid food. 

 There is in this case between the ants and their guests 

 a symbiosis with reciprocal advantages, constituting the 

 myrin ecoxeny of Emery. Wasmann has shown that among 

 the myrmecophile Staphylinidse the reduction, more or less 

 pronounced, of the palps was, so to speak, the expression of 

 the degree of dependence of these insects upon the ants who 

 housed them. 



* From the ' Comptes Rendus,' tome cxxii. 1896, pp. 799-802. 



t A classified list of myrmecophile animals will be found in a recent 

 book, exceedingly useful to naturalists engaged iu the study of ants, Was- 

 mann, Erich, ' fcritisches Verzeichniss der myrmekophilen und termito- 

 philen Anhropoden ' (Berlin, 1894). 



