MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 4 J 5 



taken on the 21st April, the peepul being bare of leaves at this season 

 for about a fortnight. The bees were Aiiis indica. 



H. FOOKS, Lt.-Col., i.m.s. 

 JuLLUNDUK, Punjab, 

 2oth Ajml 1913. 



No. XXXIII.— ANT-MIMICRY BY A FORMICOMUS (COLEOPT., 

 ANTB.ICID/E). 



One evening about the end of July 1912, I noticed a small ant swarming 

 from its nest below ground under a grass lawn at Coimbatore. For some 

 days previously there had been heavy rain and the ants were probably 

 busy in clearing out their galleries after the wet weather. There were no 

 winged individuals amongst them and the workers seemed to be doing very 

 little excavation-work, but were pouring in and out of the three or four 

 entrances to the nest (mere holes in the ground, without any embankment 

 of any sort) and were running about over the adjacent ground in an appa- 

 rently aimless but excited manner. At such times myrmecophilous beetles 

 may sometimes emerge from the nest and I therefore looked to see if I 

 could find any. Sure enough, several small beetles were soon found to be 

 present. They were running about over the ground intermingled with the 

 ants, which in life they mimicked so exactly that (particularly as dusk 

 began to fall) I caught an ant in mistake for a beetle, and vice versa 

 on several occasions. The beetles did not seem to be in any way pets of 

 the ants. Generally they took little notice of one another and, if an ant 

 and a bettle met, they usually avoided one another mutually, but occasion- 

 ally the ant attacked the beetle and both rolled over and over in a rough- 

 and-tumble struggle which always ended by the ant letting go its hold and 

 running off in precipitate retreat. It seemed to me (though I could 

 neither see, smell, nor hear the explosion) that the beetle, when thus attack- 

 ed, discharged some volatile liquid highly disagreeable to the ant. 



I could not see a beetle emerge from the nest nor enter, and those I 

 caught and dropped into the entrances were at once expelled. But 

 the beetles were so common amongst the ants — and only on that area 

 where these ants were swarming ; I could find none on other parts of the 

 lawn beyond the radius of this particular ants' wanderings — and mimicked 

 the ants so exactly that I supposed there must be really some association 

 between them. 



Father E. Wasmann, S.J., has kindly examined these beetles and writes 

 that they belong to the family AntMcidce genus, Formicomus, and has 

 returned a few specimens labelled F. indicus, Wasm MS., the species being 

 iindescribed and the name as yet unpublished. He says further : "You 

 are right in supposing that there is no friendly relation between these 

 beetles and the ants. The species of Formicomus live in the neif/hbourhood 

 of ants-nests, probably devouring isolated ants. The ant-mimicry in these 

 beetles is very high. " The ant is Monomorium salomonis indicum, Forel, 

 a common species in India. 



Probably readers of the Journal, who will observe ants when they are 

 swarming, may find this and probably several other quite new cases ot 

 beetles which mimic ants and live either with them or on them. 



T. BAINBRIGGE FLETCHER. 



COIMBATOKE, 



ISth February 1913. 



