190 



THE THEOKY OF EVOLUTION 



adaptation of the said insects, etc., to the myrmecophil 

 or termitophil mode of life, they have developed 

 themselves. Thus do the adaptive phenomena among 

 the Ant guests and Termite guests afford in fact an 

 abundance of evidence in favour of the generic-historical 

 appearance of new species, new genera, new groups of 

 genera, and new families in the animal kingdom. 



In support of the above paragraph we will give only 

 a few examples. In the Beetle family of the Staphylids 



we find in the group of the 

 Lomechusini three genera with 

 altogether twenty-one species, 

 which, by their peculiarly 

 broad bodily form and the 

 arched sides of the thoracic 

 shield, and particularly by the 

 yellow bunches of hairs on the 

 hinder sides of the body, differ 

 strikingly from the rest of the Staphylids (Fig. 35). 

 All these morphological peculiarities are adaptive 

 characters to the true guest relations which connect 

 those beetles with the ants. The myrmecophil adaptive 

 characters form, therefore, the particular reason why 

 these beetles form proper species, proper genera, and 

 a proper group of genera of the Staphylids. 



Furthermore we know so far of over one hundred 

 genera, with about five hundred species, in the family 

 of the Staphylidse alone, of Ant guests or Termite 

 guests, whose systematic separation also depends upon 

 their myrmecophil or termitophil adaptive characters. 



FIG. 35. LOMECIIUSA STBUMOSA 

 F. (mag. 5 diarri.)- 



