THE MYRMECOPillLOUS COLEOPTERA 3^1 



he raises himself on tlie tips of the front legs, nearly standing on his head. 

 He bends the body right over his back, to reach the end of the female's body, 

 when she puts her body up to meet his. The posterior part of the male's 

 body opens and clasps that of the female, and coition takes place. The 

 female lays the eggs on the eggs, or very young larvae, of the ants, and the 

 young larva hatches almost at once. It is very like an ant larva in appearance 

 and is fed by the ants. They also place it on their own brood, and Father 

 Wasmann believes that the voracity of the larva produces pseudogjoies 

 among the ants. This has been admitted by Viehmeyer and Wheeler. Pseu- 

 dogynes are worker ants, with some of the characters of the females, though 

 they do little, if any, work, and are said not to bite like normal workers do. 

 I have found pseudog\aies in nests of Formica sanguinea in the Xew Forest, 

 which, according to Wasmann's theory, proves that Lomechusa must occur 

 there. He considers they are produced as follows : the numbers of worker 

 larvae devoured by Lomechusa causes a scarcity of workers in the nest. Now, 

 as is well kno%vn, the ants produce females by feeding their larvae on special 

 food, and the pseudogynes are caused by the ants trying to turn larvae they 

 have started to rear as females, mto workers, to make up for the lack of the 

 latter, Pseudogjaies only begua to appear when Lomechusa has been present 

 for some years m a nest, and it is from these colonies that the beetle spreads 

 to other nests. Pseudogpies do not occur in every nest where Lomechusa is 

 found, but the beetle is said to be always present, even if it cannot be found 

 where the former are. Lomechusa is kept in check at iirst by the ants digging 

 up the pupa of the beetle and carrying it about, as they do their own pupae, 

 which causes the death of the beetle. 



The species of the genus Atemeles are, like Lomechusa, true guests, being 

 fed and licked by their hosts. When an Atemeles desires to be fed it not 

 only asks an ant, by tapping with its antennae, as does Loniechtisa, but it 

 further imitates the actions of its hosts by stroking the side of the head 

 of the ant with its front foot. Thej' are double hosted, that is to say their 

 summer hosts are ants of the genus Formica, in the nests of which species 

 their eggs are laid and their larvae bred, so these ants may be called the 

 larval hosts ; their winter hosts are ants of the genus Myrmica, which may be 

 called the beetle hosts. The beetles thus have to make a double migration, 

 one in the early part of the year from Myrmica to Formica nests, and again 

 in summer or autumn from Formica to Myrmica. Consequently one would 

 expect to find Atemeles at large more often than other regular guests, and 

 this is exactly what does happen. The pairing time is about May, and is 

 the same as that of Lomechusa. Wasmann has demonstrated that the 

 eggs are laid on the eggs of the ants, from which they are undistinguishable 

 even with a lens. The young larvae hatch very soon and devour the ants' 

 grubs. I have seen the ants in one of my observation nests place the larva 

 of Atemeles emarginatus on their own brood. Rupertsberger, in 1893, recorded 

 that he gave a larva of Atemeles from a. Formica truncicola nest, to specimens 

 of Formica pratensis, and that they received it with joy and hcked and 

 caressed it. Another interesting point is that the beetles go into quarantine 

 before they enter the other hosts' nest, after leaving the one. This covers 



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