Myrmecophile Lepismidse to Ants. 399 



This dependence is pushed to the last degree in the case of 

 Claviger testaceus, which is to be found often enough on the 

 ant-hills near Paris. Although in artificial nests one can see 

 these Coleoptera attach themselves from time to time to the 

 dead larva?, which they appear to suck for a moment, it may 

 be said that their true food is only that provided for them by 

 their hosts, because they die rapidly when they are separated 

 from them. 



As for the Aphides, they are not truly myrmecophile : it 

 is true that they are greatly sought after by ants, who obtain 

 from them an abundant supply of food, and who, in exchange, 

 can extend to them a more or less real protection ; but they 

 neither ask nor obtain from the ants anything, and even in 

 general do without them. 



The Lepismidro have for a long time been classed as 

 myrmecophile, but their relations to ants have up to the 

 present been but imperfectly understood. I have had occa- 

 sion to notice in my artificial nests specimens of Lepismina 

 poli/poda, Grassi, taken with a colony of Lasius umbratus, 

 Nyl., genus mixtus, Nyl. 



In the first nest I placed some Lepismina without ants, in 

 a second Lepismina with the ants with which they had been 

 taken. 



The Lepismina which had been brought up without ants 

 received as food a mixture of honey, sugar, flour, and yolk of 

 egg. They numbered at the beginning of the observations 

 twenty-one ; at the expiration of two years and six months 

 there were still nine of them remaining in good condition, and 

 these readily ate the liquid honey which was given to them on 

 the point of a pair of very fine forceps. 



The Lepismina brought up with the ants with which they 

 had been captured were much more lively than those from the 

 other nest. They were in a state of constant movement, and 

 ran about among the ants, but took great care never to remain 

 stationary in their neighbourhood. 



Occasionally I saw the ants threaten the Lepismina, and 

 even throw themselves upon them ; but in the latter case 

 they were so agile that they invariably escaped. Never- 

 theless, in my artificial nest, in which they could not so easily 

 reach a place of safety as in a natural nest, they were sooner 

 or later caught. Two days after setting up the nest I found 

 five dead bodies, which the ants seized in their mandibles and 

 carried about the nest. In order to save the survivors I 

 began their training in a new nest, only certain portions of 

 which were accessible to the ants, or, at least, but little fre- 

 quented by them. There the Lepismina remained for a long 



