ANT AND TERMITE GUESTS 191 



Many of these genera as, for instance, the Mimeciton 

 (Ant Ape) belonging to the mimicry type of the 

 Dorylinae guests are by their adaptive characters so 

 extremely different from their other family relatives, 

 that a systematic sub-family can be justly based upon 

 them, as has been done also for the offensive type 

 (Trutztypus) of the genera belonging to the Dorylin 

 guests, Trilobitideus, Xenocephalus, and Pygostenus, 

 which represent the typical genera of the sub-families 

 Trilobitideini, Xenocephalini, and Pygostenini. Very 

 remarkable, too, are the termitophil 

 Physogastric Aleocharince (Fig. 36), 

 Staphylinids with enormously de- 

 veloped, mostly membraneous pos- 

 teriors, which can assume the most 



FIG. 36. TEEMITOBIA 



grotesque forms and most singular ENTENDVENIENSIS 



TnAG.(mag.5diam.) 



positions, as, for instance, in the 

 genera Spimcktha, Termitobia, and Termitomimus. Until 

 now twenty-four genera, with thirty-two species, have 

 been discovered of these interesting creatures in the 

 tropical termite nests where they are eagerly licked by 

 their hosts on account of the exudation of agreeable 

 secretions which here are an element of the blood fluids 

 of the guests, and in return are fed from their hosts' 

 mouths, as is evident from the formation of the tongues 

 of the beetles concerned. The morphological, generic, 

 and specific characters of these hemiptera show them- 

 selves thus to be termitophil adaptive characters. 



There is also a particular family or sub-family of 

 small myrmecophil beetles which have been named 



