NOTES ON HYMENOPTERA. 95 



the spot where the second specimen was taken, and which 

 has been liberally added to my collection. There were three 

 or four specimens from the same locality in the cabinet of 

 Mr. Curtis, which was purchased for the Melbourne 

 Museum. 



Ants' nests, and the myrmecophilous beetles found therein, 

 have excited great zeal and assiduity, but principally on 

 account of the rarity of some of the species, and the 

 consequent natural desire of Coleopterists to add them to 

 their collections. Not any Entomologist has, I believe, 

 made any discovery whereby a clue to their relationship 

 to the ants has been clearly ascertained. That they act 

 the part of scavengers in those nests in which they are 

 found is, I conceive, the most apparently reasonable conjec- 

 ture. The majority of these are rarely found in any other 

 situation, and appear to be entirely dependant upon the ants 

 for support ; Clavirjer, never seeing the light of day during 

 its entire existence, has consequently no need of eyes to 

 enable it to find its way from one situation to another. 



But there are other connections equally obscure in many 

 respects, namely, those existing between one species of ant 

 and another which live in community. We know that 

 certain species are found in the nests of the slave-making 

 ant, Formica sanguinea, in whose nest we find most com- 

 monly, in the capacity of slavery, the Formica fusca ; these 

 are principally carried there in the pupa state, and are con- 

 sequently born, as it were, part of the household ; others 

 are carried there by force, and appear soon to become con- 

 tented, and to work in unison with the restj but thei'e are 

 several other species found there which appear to be inter- 

 lopers, living on sufferance, but allowed unmolested to rear 

 their progeny in perfect security. 



