55 2 



Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ichneumons, 



organisms, or make necessary the assumption that ants have a choice-making 



and generally adaptive and teachable intelligence. Can ants dislocate in 



time their reactions to stimuli ? Are ants conscious ? 



Curious interrelations of ants with some other animals have already 

 been referred to, as their care of plant-lice 

 (Aphididae) from which they obtain the much- 

 liked honey-dew, and their association with various 

 species of their own general kind in the rela- 

 tions of slave-maker and slave, host and parasite, 

 or host and guest. But still another kind of inti- 

 mate association with other animal species is com- 

 mon in ant-life, namely, that of the occurrence in 

 their nests of many different species of other in- 

 sects (as well as certain mites, spiders, and myri- 

 apods) which force their presence on their ant 

 hosts by cleverness or deception, or are tolerated 



FIG. 755. Ecitoxenia brevi- or even encouraged by the hosts. A few of these 



pes a. rove-beetle (Staphy- art hropods which inhabit ants' nests are true para- 



hnidae), which lives in the . , . 



nests of the robber-ant, sites or predaceous enemies, such as have to be 



Etiton schmittii, in Texas, endured by almost all other insect kinds, but the 

 Note absence of wings and . . . .. ,. , ., ., , 



curiously modified shape. lar ge majority of these so-called myrmecophiles do 



natural little or no injury to their ant hosts, while a few 

 even return in some degree the advantages which 

 they receive by the association. These advantages are (a) ready-made 

 subterranean cavities and lodging-places, defended against most enemies by 

 the fierce and capable owners 

 of the nest; (b) a pleasant 

 and favorable temperature 

 maintained despite the frigid 

 ity of the outer atmosphere; 



(c) stores of vegetable food, 

 as seeds, etc., garnered by 

 the ants, and supplies of ani- 

 mal food, as bits of freshly 

 killed insects, etc., collected by 



the hosts, as well as the larv* 



and pupae, and even the dead p IG> 757 . jEnigmatis blattoides, a Phorid fly, which 



bodies of the ants themselves; 

 .. .... 



(d) the sweetish liquid food 



readily regurgitated by most 



ant workers in response to certain stimuli, and normally used for feeding 



the queens, males, and occasionally other workers: and finally (e) means 



(After Brues; 



length one-eighth inch.) 



Q ^ _ Termito ^ aster ^xana, a rove-beetle 

 (Staphylinidae), which lives in the nests of the 



> . 



Hves in the nests of the ant Formica fusca in 

 Denmark. (AfterMemert; thirteen times natural 

 size ^ 



