66 n me 1 81 
THE PHORESY OF ANTHEROPHAGUS. ib 
shorter and thicker; compared with nuda, Mayr., the postpetiole is 
wider still in proportion to its length. The shape of the pedicel, as 
seen from above, appears to come nearest to batesi, For., but both 
nodes are higher in profile. 
“The Phoresy of Antherophagus.’’ 
By HORACE DONISTHORPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S., etc. 
In 1919 my friend Professor W. M. Wheeler published a most 
interesting and able paper on the Phoresy of Antherophayus. The fol- 
lowing is a resumé of this paper, together with a few notes, and addi- 
tions to the facts ard literature of the subject, known to me. 
On August 16th, 1919, while collecting near Colebrook, Wheeler 
observed a worker Bombus vayans behaving in an erratic manner on 
the flowers of golden-rod. The Bombus repeatedly attempted to insert 
its proboscis into the flowers, but did not succeed because a female of 
Antherophagus ochraceus, Mels., was firmly attached by its mandibles to 
the right maxilla and the tongue. It did not release its hold in the~- 
cyanide jar, and Wheeler. shows it in its original position in the 
accompanying figure to his paper. He failed to find any record of 
such behaviour in the American Antherophagi (ochraceus, convexulus, 
and suéuralis), but a perusal of the accounts of the Kuropean species 
(niyricornis, silaceus, aud pallens) yielded a satisfactory explanation. 
In 1896 Lesne called attention to insects that ride on larger ones, and 
applied the term ‘tphoresy” to this phenemenon, showing that it is 
distinguished from ectoparasitism by the fact that the portee does not 
feed on the porter, eventually dismounting and having no further re- 
lations with the latter. Janet, in 1897, expanded the concept, dis- 
tinguishing six different categories ; 
(1) Cases like that of the small flies of the genus Limosina, which 
ride on the dung-beetle, Atewchus, and represent phoresy in its typical 
form as conceived by Lesne. 
(2) Cases in which the portee is conveyed to the nest of the porter, 
like the triungulin larve of certain beetles (Sitaris, Melo, etc.), and the 
triungulins of the Strepsiptera. 
(3) Cases like a few myrmecophilous beetles (Thorictus), which 
attach themselves to the antenne of ants for the purpose of accqm- 
panying them on their peregrinations. 
(4) Cases like the mites of the genus Antennophorus, which are not 
only carried but fed by the ant. These and the cases under (3) might 
be referred to ectoparasitism. 
(5) Indirect phoresy, as exhibited by certain mites that cling to the 
surfaces of ant larvee and pupz, which are in turn transported by the 
ants. , 
(6) The case of ants that carry in their mandibles their own young, 
other members of the colony. or guests. 
In 1911 Banks published some 17 cases of phoresy collected from 
the literature, others being recorded by Warren (1903), Braes (1917a, 
1917b), and Rabaud (1917). These authors cited cases of parasitic 
Hymenoptera which attach themselves to the abdomens of Orthoptera, 
or the wings of Mantoidea, in order to be on hand to oviposit in the 
eges of their porters; such cases representing a seventh category. 
Lesne and Janet cited the case of Antherophayus (overlooked by 
