90 THE HUMANIZING OF THE BRUTE. 



resentatives of the two European species in America. 

 L,et us see in what this relation consists. It is the 

 custom of the Formica sanguinea not only to adopt 

 related species of ants as their auxiliaries, but also to 

 receive a number of other insects, notably the L,ome- 

 chusa strumosa, as genuine guests into their house- 

 hold. This hospitable relation between ant and beetle 

 is based on various reasons. Unable to raise its own 

 brood, the Lomechusa has the instinctive desire to 

 have itself and its young fed by the Formica san- 

 guiaea. On the part of the Formica sanguinea the 

 relation to its guest is based in part on the circum- 

 stance that its maternal instinct is aroused by the 

 sight of the helpless beings before it. Then, by ac- 

 tive and passive mimicry, the L,omechusae imitate the 

 attitudes and behavior of their hosts and furnish them 

 some pleasurable sensations for their gustatory and 

 olfactory organs. Besides, in order to understand the 

 facts to be explained presently, we must remember 

 that there are four distinct periods in the life-history 

 of beetles and ants. Not unlike our birds, the young 

 offspring passes the first days of its short-lived existence 

 in the dark and narrow enclosure of the egg. Scarcely 

 has the baby-beetle escaped from its precious en- 

 closure, when it starts upon the second most precarious 

 period of its life. A tiny mass of pulp, the helpless 

 creature, now called larva, lies in the nest of the ants. 

 Totally dependent on their "loving care", it ever and 

 again opens its mouth, to be fed by its "kind" host. 

 After its bodily size has assumed the proper propor- 

 tions, the larva is carried by the ants to a suitable 

 place and covered with earth. In its temporary 



