504 SUMMAEY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Atemeles feeds another, or even as a rarity one of the hosts. Yet the 

 beetles feed independently on sweet things, dead insects, and even the 

 unprotected joung of the ants. The guests are licked and cleaned by 

 the hosts, as well as vice versa ; but the beetles are in reality quite 

 dependent upon the ants. 



As to Lomechusa, it is represented in Central Europe by a single 

 species, L. strumosa, which is almost always found with Formica 

 sanguinea, though occasionally with other forms. This beetle is much 

 larger, plumper, and more helpless than Atemeles ; its odour is different 

 and very like formic acid ; its relations to the hosts are more passive, 

 yet it can feed independently, for instance, on the larvae and pupse of the 

 ants. 



The other guests are rather pests than pets. They almost all live on 

 animal food, are often protected simply by prestige or by their odour. 

 The minute Oligota, Homalota talpa, Myrmecoxenus, Monotoma, Hysteridse, 

 the small guest-ant Formicoxenus in the nests of Formica rufa, &c., 

 appear to escape unnoticed. 



On a change of abode, the myrmecophilous insects follow their 

 guests, or, as in the case of Lomechusa and Atemeles, they are taken with 

 them by force. "While the ants themselves are well known to be very 

 exclusive, the guests can be shifted from nest to nest or even from 

 species to species. As Wasmann says, the guests seem to have 

 "international relations." 



In commenting upon the above facts, Prof. Emery regards it as 

 certain that the semi-domesticated, and in one sense parasitic forms like 

 Atemeles and Lomechusa, are descended from thievish forms. They 

 retain some of the original traits, just as dogs and cats do in their 

 recently acquired tamed state. 



Butterflies' Enemies.* — Mr. S. B. J. Skertchly, who has had oppor- 

 tunities of studying the question in virgin forest, discusses the habits 

 of the enemies of Butterflies. He comes to the conclusions that 

 mimicry is a protection from foes which attack butterflies on the 

 wing ; protective resemblance is a protection from foes which hunt 

 sleeping prey ; mimicry was a protection from birds, but birds seldom 

 attack butterflies now, though butterfly-catching birds were formerly 

 more plentiful. The comparative rarity of mimicry shows the danger 

 to have been of relatively short duration. The shyness of butterflies 

 is a further proof of danger ; it is now probably an inherited instinct. 

 Protective resemblance is almost universal, and is a protection 

 during the sleeping hours. Ants seldom capture living butterflies. 

 The symmetrical mutilations of butterflies point to lizards and perhaps 

 small insectivorous mammals as the foes which hunt for sleeping butter- 

 flies. It is concluded that the amount of dunger feared is measurable 

 by the eiforts made to avoid it. 



Alimentary Canal of Larval Lamellicorns-t — Sig. P. Mingazzini 



communicates some new facts in regard to the structure of the alimentary 

 canal in the larvae of some phytophagous Lamellicorns, belonging to the 

 genera Oryctes, Anomala, Cetonia, and Tropinota. He notes the presence 

 of unstriped muscles in the mesentercjn, for at least a period of the larval 

 life, and describes a new type of connective tissue and crj stalloids in the 



* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., iii. (1889) pp. 477-85. 

 t Boll. Soc. Nat. Napoli, ii. (1888) pp. 130-4. 



