Stainforth: The Guests of Yorkshire Ants. 389 
den* records it from Linton and Wetherby, and Stebbing} 
from Naburn, near York. In Lincolnshire it occurs at South 
Ferriby where I found it on October 16th, with D. nigra and 
F, fusca, and at Cadney, Louth, Mablethorpe and Willoughby. 
In a paper on ‘The Distribution and Habits of Platyarthrus 
hoffmanseggit Brandt., with special reference to West Lan- 
cashire, Standen{ writes that in his experience the nest of 
Donisthorpea flava is its principal habitat, and that he can 
only find one solitary record of its occurrence with another 
species, viz., Myrmica rubra. This is difficult to under- 
stand seeing that the discoverer of the species in England, 
the Rev. A. R. Hogan,§ observed it near Weymouth ‘in as 
many as thirty nests of the common red, yellow and black 
ants. Donisthorpe|| records it for F. rufa, fusca and sanguinea, 
D. flava, fuliginosa, nigra, umbrata and aliena, Myrmica 
scabrinodis, laevinodis, and_ sulcinodis; while Wasmann4] 
records it on the Continent for an even greater number of 
species. 
My own experience coincides with this, as I have found it 
occurring indifferently in the nests of all the ant species I have 
yet observed in the East Riding. Near Weedley Springs, 
where at least four species live in proximity to one another, 
the isopods occurred freely with each, but I think in the greatest 
abundance in the nests of F. fusca where they offered a pro- 
nounced contrast in colour and movement to this dark and 
active ant. 
Every observer is struck by the obvious impunity with 
which the little unarmed crustacean walks among the crowded 
ants. I have never seen an ant take the slightest notice ot it. 
A Platyarthrus’s one desire seems to be to escape from the 
light, and although its movements are comparatively slow it 
is remarkable how soon it “ makes itself scarce’ by disappear- 
ing into the innermost recesses of the nest. Specimens may 
be taken from the nest of one ant species to another and still 
the same mutual indifference is, in my experience, to be ob- 
served. If the ants, however, are similarly transported there 
is bound to be trouble. 
A nest of D. flava, consisting, as it does, of a complicated 
ramification of tunnels, affords a very suitable retreat for 
many small subterranean animals besides the one just des- 
cribed. A week ago (October 23rd), I came across a mound 
* The Lancashire Naturalist, Nov., 1909, pp. 239-242. 
t Vict. County Hist. Yorks., I., p. 312. 
£ loc. cit. 
§ Nat. Hist. Rev. VI., p. 109; and Bate and Westwood, ‘ Brit. Sess. 
Eyed Crustacea,’ vol. II., p. 465. 
|| Ent. Rec., 1902, p. 70; and ‘ British Ants,’ 1915. 
4| ‘ Die Gaste der Ameisen und Termiten,’ 1898. 
1915 Dec. 1. 
N 
io) 
