NUMBER XV 

 GUESTS AND SLAVES OF ANTS 



A GREAT number of cases are now known where 

 small beetles or other insects live on friendly 

 terms with ants. One of the most extraordinary 

 cases is that of certain little crickets (called Myrme- 

 cophila), which have become guests of ants. Parti- 

 cular guests are wont to be associated with particular 

 hosts ; thus one of the little crickets is usually found 

 in the nests of the black ant, and, in suitable locali- 

 ties, of the red ant. The reason for the picking 

 and choosing of a host is probably to be found in 

 some suitability in the relative size of host and guest. 

 The little crickets get shelter and food ; they lick 

 their hosts, who give up some of their food ; they 

 plunder the worker-ants returning to the nest with 

 spoils ; they steal from the newly-fed young ants ; 

 they insist on having a share when the ants are 

 eating ; and, finally, they sometimes demand food 

 from the ants, raising their forelegs in a peculiar 

 fashion. In this movement and in that of their 

 feelers there seems to be something like an imitation 

 of the ants' movements, but in other ways their 

 movements are very different from those of their 

 hosts. Why the ants tolerate them, who can tell ? 



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