342 



ENTOMOLOGY 



winged louse in the field and carries it down out of sight, and 

 in one such instance it appeared that the wings had been 

 gnawed away near the body, as if to prevent the escape of 

 the louse. Similar relations exist also between ants and some 

 species of scale insects. 



Guests. Though Aphidae and Coccidae are able almost 

 always to live without the help of ants, there are some insects 

 which have never been found outside the nests of ants. Most 

 of these insect guests are beetles, notably Staphylinidae and 

 Pselaphidae. The rove-beetles make themselves useful by 

 devouring refuse organic matter, and these scavengers are un- 

 molested by the ants with which they live. A few myrme- 



FIG. 286. 



Lomechusa strumosa being freed of mites by Dinarda dentata. After WASMANN. 



cophilous beetles furnish their hosts with a much-coveted secre- 

 tion and receive every attention from the ants, which clean 

 these valuable beetles and even feed them mouth to mouth, as 

 the ants feed one another. Lomechusa (Fig. 286) is one of 

 these favored guests, as it has abdominal tufts of hairs from 

 which the ants secure a secreted fluid. Atemeles (Fig. 287) 

 is another; it solicits and obtains food from the mouth of a 

 foraging ant as if it were an ant itself. In the Alleghanies, 



