PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 337 



yellow ant, which, according to Muller's very curious account of its habits, 

 confirmed by M. Wesmael, keeps in its nest the singular little Claviger 

 foveolatus (which Mr. Westwood has discovered in this abode in England), 

 and obtains from the bristles terminating its elytra a gummy secretion 

 which it uses for food, as it does that obtained from Aphides, feeding the 

 Clavigers in return for this service, and carefully guarding them from straying, 

 which if they attempt it seizes them with its jaws. 1 Their herds of these 

 hard-coated yellow cattle are often numerous ; for when paying a visit in 

 1829 to my friend Professor Germar at Halle in Prussia, he showed me a 

 whole row of specimens from which he begged me to select at pleasure, 

 all of which, if I recollect right, he had obtained from one ant's nest. It 

 is probable that another species of Claviger (C. longicornis), which M. 

 Robert found also in an ant's nest, is made a similar use of by them. 



One of the singular circumstances in the history of ants, and which 

 requires further explanation, is, that besides the two beetles just named, 

 many other species of the same tribe, mostly of small size, are also found 

 in their nests, and so constantly, that it cannot arise from accident. My 

 friend M. Chevrolat of Paris, who has been more successful in procuring 

 new and rare coleopterous insects from this habitat than perhaps any other 

 entomologist, has obtained the greatest number from the nests of formica 

 rufa Latr., in which he has found Lomechusa strumosa and denfata, a new 

 species of Xantholimts, Dendrophilus pygmcens Payk., D. formicetorum 

 Aube, and D. Guerini Chevr., and Monotoma conicollis, and M. formice- 

 torum Chevr. He has also found several specimens of Lomechusa paradoxa 

 in the nest of Formica cunicularia Latr., and Abrasns globulus Payk., 

 Batrisus formicarius De la Porte, and B. oculatus, and B. venustus Aube, 

 as well as his singular new insect Myrmechixenus subterraneus, in other 

 nests ; and M. Reiche has also found Hcsterius quadraius in the nest of 

 Myrmica unifasdata, as has Mr. MacLeay a crepitating species of Cerapterus 

 in ants' nests in Australia. 2 Besides the above, M. Chevrolat has observed 

 in some of these ants' nests isolated larvae, as he supposes, of a Clythra 

 clothed with a case of gluten combined with particles of earth and small 

 stones 3 ; and Mr. Westwood states that he has often found in the nests 

 both of Formica? and Myrmicce many very young specimens of a white 

 colour of a species of Oniscus, of which genus also, M. Lund in Brazil 

 observed many of the ants of a column of Myrmica typhlos to carry each 

 an individual beneath the abdomen. 4 Thus we have sixteen or seventeen 

 coleopterous insects of different genera and species, besides one or more 

 species of Oniscus, habitually residing in ants' nests ; but whether these, 

 like the Clavigers, are subservient to the purposes of the ants, or whether 

 they make the ants subservient to theirs, or what is the precise object of 

 the companionship, must be left for future investigation, and are points to 

 which I would strongly recommend your attention. 5 



1 Germar, Magazin der Entom. iii. t. 2. Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. i. 176. 



2 Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. i. xii. 

 8 Silbermann, Revue Entom. iii. 263. 



4 Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 234. 



5 As there can be little doubt that several of M. Chevrolat's insects might be 

 found in ants' nests in this country, as well as Claviger foveolatus, if sought for in 

 the way which this indefatigable entomologist employs, it may not be amiss to 

 indicate his mode of procedure. Before attacking an ants' nest he ties the legs of 

 his pantaloons over his boots and puts on gloves, and then proceeds to shovel the 



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