June 1, 1892. 



KNOWLEDGE 



105 



amongst the same species of Ant had reached, so to 

 speak, different degrees of intellectual development on the 

 subject of the domestication of alien insects. Sir John 

 Lubbock's experiments iu connection with another pet. 

 which we shall consider more iu detail presently, seem, how- 

 over, to throw some doubt on such a conclusion. (Jhiviijcr 

 is not the only member of the I'aelitjiliidir which may be 

 found in .\nts' nests ; several others may also be met with 

 occasionally, but they have not the degraded habits and 

 structure of Claru/ei; and their occurrence in the nests is 

 not therefore a matter of prime necessity to themselves. 

 One species, called Bairisus reniistus is a rare insect, and is 

 said only to occur "inijly iu the nests. 



Another Ants'-nest beetle is figured in the adjoining 

 illustration (Fig. 4). It is one of the Brachelytra and a 



member of a genus 

 (Mj/ntiriloyiiu), all the 

 species of which are 

 associated with Ants. 

 They do not, however, 

 appear to be on such 

 intimate terms with 

 their hosts as the 

 beetles already men- 

 tioned, and indeed it is 

 considered by some ob- 

 servers that the Auts, 

 so far from cherishing 

 them, regard them 

 with distrust and sus- 

 picion. They are all 

 brownish or blackish 

 insects, larger than 

 those already men- 

 tioned, of fragile struc- 

 ture and aotivs habits. 

 Many other of these 

 m3'rmecophilous (Ant- 

 lo\ingj beetles might 

 be illustrated with ad- 

 vantage ; indeed, a 

 complete portrait 

 gallery of the whole 

 company would be an interesting collection, revealing, as 

 it would, the wonderful diversity of form, colour, and size 

 which marks these immigrants into Ant territory. But we 

 must pass on to other branches of our subject. 



The larva:' of beetles are sometimes found in Ants' nests, 

 though the perfect insects live elsewhere. Thus the 

 brilliant rose-beetles or rose.-chafers, which, in their per- 

 fect condition, may be found in the flowers of roses, pro- 

 ceed from fat whitish grubs, which are to be met with iu 

 the heaps of the mound-building .\nts. No greater con- 

 trast could be imagined than between the soft, ugly, fleshy 

 grub and the hard-skinned handsome beetle, which, as it 

 rests embosomed in rose petals, with the sun shining on 

 its brilliant golden green or coppery back, is a perfect gem 

 of loveliness. In the Ants' mounds the grubs hud a com- \ 

 fortable home as well as a means of subsistence, while one 

 species has been accused of making a traitorous return for ! 

 the shelter it receives by devouring the Ants' " eggs." 

 Similar habits pertain to the larvfe of another beautiful 

 beetle of very different structure and anatomical relations, 

 called (^'lytlira quadn'pinirtatn : its specific name, signifying 

 the " four-dotted," refers to the four black spots that con- 

 spicuously mark its long yellowish red elytra ; the rest of j 

 its body is black. It is a fine-looking insect, about |ths of i 

 an inch long, and its larva inhabits, not very commonly, | 

 the nests of the 'Wood Ant {F. rufa), living in a hairy, ! 



Fig. 4. — JTi/nHedonta J^i'iiesfa, a beetle 

 found in Ants' nests ; magnified ten 

 diameters. 



leathery case, which it drags about, while its head and 

 legs protrude from one end. 



The order Hemiptera, or bugs, furnishes its quota of 

 foreign residents in Ants' nests. Some of these bear a 

 superficial resemblance to the Ants ; others are quite 

 unlike them, and their presence is probably sulEciently 

 accounted for by the attractiveness of the shelter which 

 the piles of bits of stick, grass, &c., afford. To the same 

 order belong the aphides, which are among the most 

 remarkable of all the Ants' companions ; to these we 

 shall recur presently. Of the order Collembola — the 

 springtails, which are so abundant under stones and 

 decaying logs — Sir John Lubbock mentions one named 

 Beckia albinos, which exists iu large numbers in some 

 Ants' nests. It is a minute insect of an active tempera- 

 ment, like most of its allies, and its leaping power depends 

 on a kind of forked tail bent under the body ; this, on 

 being struck on the ground, projects the insect into the 

 air, repeated blows causing it to skip about iu a promis- 

 cuous fashion, apparently without any very definite idea of 

 where it is going to be landed. These little white creatures 

 run in and out amongst the Auts, which, however, seem 

 to be totally oblivious of their presence, and hence its 

 association with them is probably accidental, arisiug 

 merely from similarity of habitat. Like Clarii/cr they are 

 blind, and would therefore seem to find their way about 

 by means of their autennre, which are kept in a state of 

 perpetual vibration. Notwithstanding this defect, they 

 are dainty little creatures, and are very particular about 

 their personal appearance, frequently tidying themselves 

 up, and being especially careful about keeping their feet 

 clean. The feet are furnished with comb-like claws, the 

 action of which would of course be impeded by any accu- 

 mulation of dirt. 



A little white woodlouse (Fig. 5) is another interesting 

 Ants' guest. In the association 

 of this creature with .An'ts there 

 is something more incongruous 

 than in all the other cases we 

 have mentioned, for all these 

 have been associations of insect 

 with insect, though the guests 

 are not of the same order as 

 their hosts ; this is a parallel 

 case to the keeping of dogs and 

 cats by human beings, where we 

 have mammal with mammal, 

 though of dift'erent orders, C'ar- 

 nivora with Primates. But wood- 

 lice are not insects, as their 

 uumei-ous legs, among other 

 characteristics, attest ; they be- 

 long to the class Crustacea, which 

 contains also crabs, lobsters, 

 shrimps, barnacles, water fleas, 

 and numberless other creatures, and they are some of 

 the chief terrestrial representatives of the class. In 

 their associatiou with Ants, therefore, we find a parallel, 

 not to the instances of domestication referred to above, 

 but to cases in which human beings keep tortoises, lizards, 

 toads, or newts, as pets, and the zoological interval between 

 the Ant and the woodlouse is a wider one than between 

 the Ant and the beetle, the bug, or the springtail. As a 

 group, woodlice are perhaps best known to the majority of 

 persons by a siKte-colourcil representative called the Arma- 

 dillo woodlouse, which is excessively common in gardens 

 and elsewhere, uuder stones or under the bark of dead 

 trees, and which has the habit of rolling up into a ball 

 when disturbed, a habit which is not, however, common 



FjG.o.—Platj/art/inis Soff- 

 manseggii, a blind wood- 

 louse found in Ants' nests ; 

 magnified ten diameters. 



