101 
3. ON soME STAPHYLINIDZ, FOUND IN THE NESTS OF 
Termites. By M. ScuiopTE. 
It has long been known that some species of ants keep insects be- 
longing to different orders. The intention of the communication I 
am going to make is to point out that the same extraordinary phe- 
nomenon exists among the Termites. 
The insects which I have now the honour to bring under the 
notice of the Society, dwell amongst a certain species of Termites in 
the Brazils, and were collected, together with the Termes, by Mr. 
Reinhardt, whilst travelling for the Royal Museum of Natural History 
in Copenhagen through the province Minas Geraés. 
This Termes belongs to a peculiar little group of small species, the 
nests of which are built around branches of trees, and contain in their 
interior only a labyrinth of uniform passages, without any separate 
cell for the queen. The soldiers are not much larger than the work- 
ing individuals, and are nearly as numerous ; their head has its great- 
est dimension in the height ; the front extends below in a large horn ; 
the mandibles are not elongated, but exceedingly broad, and have a 
crenulated edge and a considerable horn on their outside. 
From physiological as well as from anatomical reasons I am of 
opinion, that the constitutional state of the society of Termites is 
established on the same fundamental laws as the societies amongst 
the Hymenoptera. Several species of ants have also soldiers. The 
working Termites are quite different from the larvee. In the species 
here mentioned they may be distinguished by the form of the instru- 
menta cibaria, especially by the two teeth at the end of the interior 
lobe of the maxillze, which are separated by a pointed incision in the 
working individuals, but in the larvee by a rounded one. 
The strangers or guests of Termites known to me are Staphyli- 
nide, belonging to the group of Aleocharini; they constitute two 
new genera. They agree with Lomechusa and Dinarda, in having a 
corneous hook on the end of the interior lobe of their maxille, but 
in other respects they present characters in the construction of the 
parts of the mouth and of the tarsi, which strikingly separate them 
from all other genera of that group. The abdomen is constructed in 
a most extraordinary manner, being membranaceous, of an enormous 
size, bent upwards so as to cover the thorax, and fixed in this po- 
sition by the dorsal faces of the second and third segments having 
grown together. 
Of one of the genera, which I have named Corotoca, two species 
are known to me (Corotoca Melantho and C. Phylo) ; they are about 
3 millim. in length from the front to the end of the second segment 
of the abdomen. Of the first of these I have observed both sexes. 
The male is a little smaller than the female, but otherwise only to be 
distinguished by the dissection of the organs of generation. 
Of the other genus, named by me Spirachtha, the male is still un- 
known to me. The abdomen is furnished with three pairs of appen- 
dages, which are elongate, cylindrical, 2-jointed, membranaceous, and 
moveable by muscles at the base. These appendages are perhaps in- 
