406 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [NoV., I9II 



ments and with a peculiar smooth proboscis which was fre- 

 quently thrust out and looked like a spine.* 



Of all these inhabitants of the bromeliad, the Pseudoscor- 

 pion, the flat Reduviid Belminiis and the Elaterid larvae re- 

 ferred to Semiotus ( ?) appear to possess the most adaptive 

 body form, i. e. flattened to correspond to the crevices between 

 the broad leaf bases. This is best marked in the Semiotus 

 (?) larvae which measured i — 1>4 in. (25-40 mm.) long, one- 

 quarter inch or more (5 + mm.) wide and less than one-eighth 

 inch ( < 3 mm.) in thickness. 



The list here given of the cotenants with the Odonate larvae 

 does not include by any means all the hromeliadicoli which we 

 met in Costa Rica, but is interesting as giving a glimpse of the 

 organic environment of the special subject of this paper. 



Again at Juan Vifias, on December 17, 1909, we pulled 

 down a large epiphytic bromeliad from about 12 feet above 

 ground, "although it took all our combined weight and strength 

 to do it and were rewarded by finding seven or eight good speci- 

 mens of Odonate larvae of different sizes. This bromeliad 

 had, among other animals, a few of the large black ants, Odon- 



*Speciinens of the bromeliadicoli were submitted to specialists and I 

 acknowledge with thanks the identifications of the earthworm by Dr. 

 J. Percy Moore, of the ants by Prof. W. M. Wheeler, of the earwig 

 by Dr. Malcolm Burr (through Mr. J. A. G. Rehn), of the Arachnida 

 by Mr. Nathan Banks, of the Coleoptera by Mr. E. A. Schwarz, of the 

 Heteroptera by Mr. O. Heidemann and of the Lepidopterous larva by 

 Dr. H. G. Dyar. The identification of the last four named groups was 

 arranged by Mr. Frederick Knab, who himself determined the Strati- 

 omyid larva. 



Of the ant Apterostigma sp., Prof. Wheeler, after examining these 

 specimens and also others from Costa Rica not collected in bromeliads, 

 wrote : "It is a fungus growing ant of the most primitive and, at the 

 present time, most interesting genus of Attii. No species of this genus 

 has ever been taken in Bromeliads. All of the known species have 

 been described from cavities in rotten wood where they build a pecu- 

 liar fungus garden using caterpillar excrement as a substratum, and 

 enveloping the whole garden in a mycelial web which is not known to 

 exist in any of the other genera of Attiine ants." Since, as stated 

 above, a caterpillar also lived in this same clump of bromeliads, doubt- 

 less the usual living conditions of Apterostigma were satisfied here. 



