400 ANT-GUESTS. 



observations relate exclusively to some of the beetles 

 which live veith ants. 



He confirms V. Hagen's statement that the speci- 

 mens of Atemeles emarginatus which live with Myr- 

 mica IcevinodiSy a jellow ant, are paler in colour than 

 those which share the nests of the black Formica 

 fusca. He entirely confirms the statements of previous 

 observers that the AteT/ieles is actually fed by the ants, 

 who also clean them just as they do their own fellows. 

 The Atemeles also, on their part, perform the same 

 kind offices for the ants. He also repeatedly saw the 

 ants licking the bunches of golden hairs on the abdomen 

 of the AteTneles. 



The Atemeles has adopted very closely the habits 

 of the ants with which it lives. They pair, moreover, 

 in the nests of the ants. Still, they are not entirely 

 dependent on their hosts, like some of the other ant- 

 guests, but are able to feed themselves. Indeed the 

 Myrmicas seem to drive them out of the nest towards 

 the beginning of May. Dr. Wasmann is disposed to 

 attribute this to the anxiety of the ants for their 

 young. In Myrm,ica the pupae are naked, and he 

 thinks the ants are afraid that the Atemeles would be 

 unable to resist the temptation of eating them. In 

 support of this suggestion, he observes that in the 

 nests of Formica sariguinea, whose pupae spin a 

 silken cocoon and are therefore protected, he has 

 found Atemeles as late as the end of June. He has 

 not been able to satisfy himself whether the larvae of 

 Atemeles are brought up in the ants' nest or not; but 

 inasmuch as while the Atemeles are far from rare, he 

 has only found among them a single larva which could 

 belong to the species, and even this was not certainly 

 identified, it seems probable that the larval stage is 

 passed elsewhere. 



Lomechusa strumosa has been recorded from the 

 nests oi Formica sanguinea, Myrmica rubra ^ Formica 



