208 JOHN L. PRICER. 



ent times during the month. On June 10, I opened two nests see- 

 ing five beetles in one and three in the other ; on June 20, I 

 found four beetles in a nest of these ants and on June 30, I 

 opened a nest and saw two of the beetles. These may have been 

 a few stragglers which had not migrated because of some disabil- 

 ity yet I could not see any signs of imperfection in them. Since 

 Wheeler found larvae on July I, it seems quite probable that at 

 least some of the beetles spend the summer also with the winter 

 host. 



The beetles are always royally received into the nests of the 

 two varieties of ants that I have been studying. I have kept 

 them all winter in artificial nests with the ants, have transferred 

 them from one colony to another and have placed them in the nest 

 with colonies which had none in their out-door .nests, and they 

 were always received and cared for. I have repeatedly seen the 

 ants licking them and feeding them, and when the beetles strayed 

 out to the feeding-room of the nest the ants would pick them up 

 and carry them back to the nest. 



Another guest or parasite which I have found abundantly with 

 the colonies of C. pennsylvanicns is a small red mite, which, 

 according to Nathan Banks, to whom I sent some mounted 

 specimens, is an undescribed species of Uropoda. I have not 

 been able to determine whether these are parasitic or merely 

 attached to the ants for the purpose of transportation, but am 

 inclined to think the former, as was also Mr. Banks. They were 

 always attached to the ants at the joints of the legs, or on the 

 underside of the joint between the head and thorax and were 

 probably extracting their nourishment through the thin nonchi- 

 tinous membranes of these regions. It seems a little peculiar 

 that the ants permitted them to stay there, for evidently they 

 could easily have removed them. It is possible, however, that 

 the mites secured this attachment after the ants became inactive 

 from the cold, for I collected them all during the winter and 

 noticed that the mites disappeared within two or three days after 

 being brought into the insectory. 



Besides these I have found numerous other insects which live 

 either in the nest or in very close proximity to it and seem to 

 live peaceably with the ants. Among these are various staphy- 



