U JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



°* the garden sucking glands, A2ihides and the larvse of Lyccsnidce, 

 " There is a large nest in the house which I examine regularly ; 

 " queens have been out for two months^ remaining in the nest and 

 ^^ dropping their wings. " Mr. Aitken also sent me some specimens 

 of a cricket which he found living in the nest with Flagiolepis. 

 These I sent to Herr Wasmann of Vienna for identification. As he 

 has most kindly permitted me to make use of his reply, I cannot 

 do better than record here an extract from his letter. '■' The 

 '^ myrmecophilous cricket is a Myrmeco'philay very near to Myrm. 

 '' acervorum (Panz.), perhaps even identical with it. The torsos, 

 ^' legs, and antennee of the 5 specimens seem to belong too 

 " of a Myrmecophila, because the sexual organs are not 

 " developed, at least no female ovipositor is to be seen. Male 

 " of Myrmecophila seem to be still quite unknown. The sup- 

 " posed $ of Myrm. acervorum, described in Burmeister's 'Hand- 

 *' buch der Entomologie' seems to have been the larva of a ? . 

 " I myself am now not quite sure, whether the 6 of Mijrm. salamonis., 

 " described in my ' Ameisengaste von Tunisien,' is indeed a 6 not 

 " a larva; possibly it may belong as a c? or a larva to Myrm. ocliracea 

 " (Fish.), the 6 of which is still unknown. According to the recent 

 " essays of Brunner no $ of a.nj Myrmecophila has jetheen described;; 

 ^^ the reason of this is that the $ cannot be distinguished exteriorly 

 " from the $ larvse. These are the difficulties in connection with 

 ^' Myrmecophila which prevent the description of supposed new 

 " species, unless the specimens are evidently $ adults. If Mr. 

 " Aitken can find the adult ? of MyrmecopJdla with PL lojigipes or 

 '^ with Zargfer ants living in the neighbourhood, the question, whether 

 " this Myrmecophila is identical with acervorum or new, can be set- 

 " tied. It must be noticed that the larva of Myrmecophila sometimes 

 " lives with small ants and the imago with larger ones. I found last 

 " May (1891), near Mariaschein, in Bohemia, a very small Myrmeco- 

 " phila (larva or d ) in the nest of Tetramoriimi C(^spitum, in the 

 " vicinity of a nest of Formica sanguinea (with slaves, /wsca) which 

 " contained a considerable number of ilf^/^'wecop/iiZa ? adults and one 

 " nearly adult larva (or 6). The larvae living in the nest of Tetra 

 " ?wonnm must have been those of M. acervorum, for that is the only 

 '* species of Myrmecophila found in Northern and Central Europe. 



