MYRMEOOPIIILOUS NOTKS FOR 11)18. 23 



very abundant this year on various trees, fir, birch, and oak, etc., near 

 rufa nests, in company with mfa ^ ^ attending;- Aphids. I have been 

 working at the association of this beetle with F. rufa for many years, 

 and as I hope to write a paper on its life-history later on, I will only 

 deal very briefly with the matter now. I found its larvjB in some 

 numbers for the first time this year and reared them in 'captivity, and 

 I am keeping a number of the perfect insect alive in a large rufa 

 observation nest. 



The marked difference in the treatment of the common Coceinella 

 7-pimctata (a certain number of which occurred in company with (1. 

 distincta on the trees, etc., near the rufa nests) by the ants, from that 

 exhibited by them to U. distincta, as I previously recorded in 1900 

 [Ent. Record, 12, 173-4 (1900)], was again noted this year; and on 

 August 27th, I demonstrated the same for the benefit of Mr. Blair, 

 when he went with me to Weybridge — he was much impressed by 

 this. 



Dr. Sharp has very kindly dissected the 3' genitalia, of C. distincta 

 and of 7-punctata for me, and he has found that they differ very greatly 

 in this respect ; those of C. distincta being very highly specialised. 



Wasmann in a paper published in 1912 [Zeitsch. ivissens. ZooL, 

 101, 112-14 (1912)] records C. distincta from Luxemburg, "always 

 in the close neighbourhood " of various ants' nests. This is the first 

 record on the Continent in which this beetle has been mentioned as 

 being in any way connected with ants. He quotes my experiments, 

 etc., at Weybridge, and says, " The larvse of this Ooccinella lives from 

 analogy with the other Coccineliid larvae without doubt, as Donis- 

 thorpe already in 1900 has remarked, on the Aphidae and Coccidae 

 dwelling with ants." He goes on to say that the ant species with 

 which it is most frequently found {F. rufa, etc., etc.) do not keep any 

 Aphidae or Coccidae in their nests, but only seek such species to milk 

 as occur everywhere outside their nests ; and that this is a Darwinian 

 paradox. He is not quite correct in stating that F. rufa keeps neither 

 Aphids nor Coecids in its nests, as I have taken of the former — Lachnus 

 formicophilus (only known from such situations), Schizoneura corni and 

 Aphis plantaginis, and of the latter — Orthezia cataphracta and New- 

 steadia floccosa, in rufa nests. However this may be, when I found 

 the Coceinella larvae this year, they were feeding on the plant-lice 

 attended by the ants on the fir trees over the rufa nests. 



In 1908 I wrote [Ent. Record, 20, 283-4 (1908)]— "My present 

 view is that these beetles seek the nests of Formica rufa for hiberna- 

 tion, and leave in the spring or early summer." I have taken them 

 on and about rufa nests in every month from February to December 

 inclusive. I hope to be able to visit the nests at Weybridge in January ; 

 and also to clear up the remaining points in its life-history.* 



On April 21st to 29th my friend Mr. J. W. Allen collected a 

 number of beetles in nests of Formica rufa (and also with other ants) 

 at Lustleigh Cleave, S. Devon, and as a certain number of them are 

 new county records it seems well to mention them all here. 



In nests of Formica rufa : — 



* As I was unable to go in January on account of my bronchitis, my friend 

 Mr. Mitford visited the nests for me on January 27th, and found several C. distincta 

 on fir-trees above the nests. 



