MYRMECOPHILISM. 11 
Myrmecophilism is far more accentuated in Daemonorops than in Calamus, and it 
is particularly easy of verification in JD. verticillaris, D. mirabilis and related species, 
also in D. formicarius. 
In the species of the group Cymbospatha, the spathes, as has been already said, 
would appear to have been specially modified to enable them to shelter ants, 
though I have never ascertained, as a positive fact, that these insects make use of 
these organs as a permanent residence. Nevertheless all the species belonging to this 
group are more or less favourites with ants, which very often accumulate small 
fragments of heterogeneous substances for building nests among the spines of the 
leaf-sheaths. 
The biological connection between ants and the Daemonorops is very evident 
in D. mirabilis, in which species the leaf-sheaths are furnished all round with several 
completely closed circular galleries which are formed of pairs of membranous rings 
or collars, which are curved over in opposite directions, ġe., in each pair one collar 
points upwards, the other downwards, The collars are also fringed with long 
slender spines, which completely close in the galleries in question. The ants, there- 
fore, to get into these ready-made habitations, which are the result of so wonderful 
a transformation of the spines, are compelled to make an entrance for themselves, 
which they obtain by gnawing through the tissue of the membranous ring at some 
convenient point, in a way precisely similar to that in which the same insects 
pierce the ventricose ocres of certain species of Korthalsia. 
Galleries very similar to those of D. mirabilis are found in D, verticillaris and 
others of the same group; these are however less completely closed, and in these 
the ants contrive to make their abode by closing the interstices between the spines 
of the collars with small fragments of rubbish, always taking care to leave a way 
of access into the interior. But D. verticiliaris has in addition to these ant- 
harbouring galleries and  nectariform tumefactions at each ramification of the 
spadices and at the axils of the spikelets, special nectaries in the male flowers, as I 
have already mentioned, a state of things which would induce a suspicion that this 
particular species has biological relations with other insects as well as with ants, We 
are as yet but imperfectly acquainted with the Daemonorops belonging to the group 
of D. mirabilis; of very few have the flowers and fruits been thoroughly studied, 
yet it is certain that, in the species of this group, well-marked instances of mutual 
relations between them and ants are found to exist, 
XII.— Uses of the Daemonorops, 
The usefulness of Daemonorops is very nearly equal to that of the Calami, though 
the economic value of the latter is somewhat superior; but precise information in this 
respect is wanting, both Calamus and Daemonorops being classed together in 
commercial language under the common name of “rattan canes,” Some Daemonorops in 
Borneo have stems of extraordinary toughness, eg., D. ozycarpus (** Rotang Mignac" of 
the Malays), but they lack a fine polished surface, and are therefore not sought after 
Ann. Roy. Bor, GARD., CarcvrrA, Vor, XII. 
