400 Relations of the Myrmecophile Lepismidse to Ants. 



time in a state of repose, completely motionless ; but when an 

 individual ant passed near to one of them it never failed to 

 make a sharp movement in order to push it out of the way. 



If the food smeared with honey, which was placed in the 

 empty chamber of the nest, was withheld for several days and 

 then replaced, a number of ants would be seen to come and 

 make a lengthy meal on it, and when, after filling themselves 

 as full as they could hold, they went back to the living 

 chambers of the nest, they were assailed by their companions, 

 who came to ask, with their antennas, a share of the food. 



The division began immediately. The one with the food 

 and the one requiring it arranged themselves one slightly in 

 advance of the other; the former drew aside its mandibles 

 and protruded its proboscis, which its companion seized with 

 its maxilla?, and disgorged some small drops, which were 

 immediately absorbed. 



From the moment that the first food-bearers entered the 

 living chambers of the nest the Lepismina showed by their 

 agitation that they had perceived the odour of honey. 



Soon quite a number of ants were gathered in pairs for the 

 business of disgorging. The bodies slightly drawn back, 

 and often with the anterior feet raised, they left a certain 

 interval between them below their heads. As soon as a 

 Lepismina arrived near such a pair it would throw itself into 

 this space, raise its head sharply, snap up the droplet which 

 fell before it, and then get away as quickly as possible, as if 

 to escape a pursuit which was deserved. But the ants, 

 propped up one against the other, are not sufficiently free to 

 move, and cannot even threaten the audacious thief, who runs 

 off at once to put another pair under contribution ; and this 

 manoeuvre is continued until hunger is satisfied. 



One must conclude from these observations that Lepismina 

 polyjwda can do without the ants well enough when there is 

 proper food at their disposal; that they are tolerated in the 

 ants' nest for the simple reason that their agility saves them 

 from pursuit by the ants ; that they are attracted to the ants' 

 nest by the bait of the nutritious liquid which the ants store 

 in their crops ; and that, contrary to what takes place in the 

 case of myrmecoxeny, the ants do not give this liquid of their 

 own free will to the Lepismina, but that these latter know 

 how to take advantage of circumstances to possess themselves 

 of it by stealth (myrmecoclepty) . 



