three Paussi. 137 



Paussus Linnei, Westwood. 



The habitat of this minute and very rare Paussus was 

 until now only a surmise. Lacordaire thought it might 

 come from India, and Gemminger and Harold gave its 

 habitat as " incertse sedis." The fact that it is so small, 

 and that I never but once found two together, seems to 

 account for its rarity in collections, the only one known 

 being, I think, that which Prof. Westwood described. 



I found it in the nest of an ant very common on the 

 slopes of Table Mountain, building galleries, though not 

 at a great depth, under stones often adjoining the nests 

 of the kind in which I found P. lineatus. These ants 

 have two sorts of workers : a worker major, more than 

 twice the size of P. Linnei, with a very large head, and 

 a very minute worker minor. 



This species is very much more active than P. lineatus, 

 going at a very fair pace if we consider the characteristic 

 sluggishness of those insects. Like P. lineatus, it exudes 

 the same pus-like matter, and crepitates with great 

 vivacity without slackening its speed. 



When I uncovered the nests, the major workers, 

 sallying out in quest of the enenry, would sometimes 

 seize hold of the Paussus, but they relinquished their 

 hold immediately, and went in search of the other sup- 

 posed intruder. 



I did with this insect what I had done with its con- 

 gener, and brought home a colony of the ants, which I 

 placed in a large glass jar with seven P. Linnei. 



Whether the major workers became infuriated by their 

 captivity, I do not know, but whenever a Paussus passed 

 close to the larvae carefully heaped in a corner by the 

 minor workers and apparently jealously watched by the 

 major, it would be immediately set upon by one or two 

 of the latter, the onslaught resulting in the loss to the 

 Paussus of a leg, an antenna, and even once a head. In 

 two days my specimens were mutilated or killed in that 

 way. One male in copula was pounced upon and had 

 his antennae, as well as those of the female, snapped off 

 without relinquishing his hold of her. Four other speci- 

 mens that I put in the jar shared the same fate ; the only 

 unmutilated specimen remaining being one that had 

 judiciously climbed a twig I had put in the bottle. 



I had not the same chance of observing this species as 

 I had with P. lineatus, yet they seemed at first to exhibit 



