371 [September, 



NOTES ON ANT'S-NEST BEETLES AT GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER; 

 WITH ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE HISTERIDM. 



BY J. J. WALKER, E.N., F.E.S. 



Among the numerous species of Coleoptera — about 1800, at a 

 moderate estimate — which were collected by me on both sides of the 

 Straits during my recent stay of two years and a half at Gibraltar 

 in H.M.S. " Grappler," the Myrmecophila were, I think, my chief 

 favourites. I was stimulated to give special attention to them, first, 

 by the discovery at Tangier, in March, 1887, of a very fine and distinct 

 species of Sternoccelis, which has since been described by Mr. Geo. Lewis 

 under the name of S. acutangulus (Ent. Mo. Mag., vol. xxiv, p. 164), 

 and subsequently by the wonderful series of ant's-nest Sisters cap- 

 tured by that gentleman in the same locality in the spring of 1888, 

 which he was kind enough to show me when passing through Gibraltar. 

 The lucid and admirable paper " On the capture of Formicarious 

 Histeridae " since published by him (" Entomologist," vol. xxi, p. 289, 

 et seq.) almost exhausts the subject of the habits of these marvellous 

 little beetles, and the following notes, as far as the Histeridce are con- 

 cerned, must be regarded as mainly supplementary to that paper. 



Of the four species of Myrmecophilous Histeridce which came 

 under my notice, all were found exclusively with ants of the genus 

 Aphcenogaster, living under stones, and almost entirely with one species, 

 viz., the black, pubescent A. testaceo-pilosa, Lucas. Curiously enough, 

 however, the very first "ant's-nest Hister' n I ever saw alive — the original 

 specimen of Sternoccelis acutangulus, Lewis — occurred at Tangier in 

 a small nest of the bright red A. sardoa, Mayr, and on one sub- 

 sequent occasion only, I found both S. acutangulus and Eretmotus 

 tangerianus, Mars., with the same ant. The commonest species appears 

 to be S. arachnoides, Eairm., which is by no means rare near Tangier, 

 though I did not meet with it in such numbers as did Mr. Lewis : this 

 species occurred only on the African side of the Straits, while the 

 little S.fusculus, Schmidt, was only found very rarely near Gibraltar, 

 being apparently repx^esented at Tangier by the allied S. maur it aniens, 

 Lewis, a species I did not obtain. Sternoccelis acutangulus and 

 JEretmotus tangerianus occur both at Tangier and Gibraltar. 



Although Aphcenogaster testaceo-pilosa is a generally distributed 

 and very abundant ant throughout the district, according to my 

 experience it was of no use searching its nest for Coleoptera of any 

 kind, except on the stiffest clay soil, which, near Gibraltar, is limited 

 to two small spots — one at the western foot of the Sierra Carbonera, 

 near the village of Campamento, and within easy walking distance of 



