LECANOPSIS FORMICARTM. 1 ( . 



and there are several of the same character on the 

 margin at the cephalic extremity ; stigmatic areas at 

 margin with several large circular spinnerets, arranged 

 in sub-groups of four or five. 



Habitat. On grass roots in the nest of Formica 

 i/i</ra at Chesil Beach, where it was first discovered by 

 Mr. C. W. Dale in April, 1892. Subsequently Mr. 

 Dale took four specimens under a stone in the same 

 locality. These examples were recorded by him * 

 at. the time as Ripersia Tomlinii, Newst., but the 

 identification proved incorrect, as was notified in the 

 original diagnosis of the species. Judging from the 

 specimens sent to me, and from Mr. Dale's observations, 

 the female is active and naked up to the period of par- 

 turition, when she constructs a loose cottony ovisac. 

 This takes place about the middle of May, and the 

 larvge appear shortly afterwards. 



Mr. Dale's account of the insect is as follows : " The 

 history of L. formicarum, as far as I can make out, is 

 that she spins and envelopes herself in cotton (after the 

 manner of a moth larva) after forsaking the ants. 

 Then the first meal of the young ones consists of the 

 body of their mother. Your premise about the female 

 secreting a pad of cotton beneath her is not correct, 

 and she is viviparous, like some of the Aphides. I have 

 never found any ovisacs in company with ants, and 

 I fancy that in previous years I have been rather too 

 early for them. I have never seen L. formioarum 

 except on the Chesil Beach. 



" Beclda albinos and Platyarihrm Hoffmanseggii 

 also occur in company with the ants Formica nigra and 

 flava, and it is a strange thing that very few Coleoptera 

 occur in their nests. L. formic arum feeds on the roots 

 of a short stiff grass which grows on sand-hills." 



It seems a physiological impossibility for the larvse 

 to devour their parent, and I imagine that the females 

 referred to by Mr. Dale had, in all probability, been 

 devoured by some predaceous insect, and, very likely, 



* <Ent. Mo. Mag./ e.<?., vol. iii, p. 219 (1892). 



