124 ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 



has large antennas in lieu of eyes, and only rudimentary 

 wings. Its movements are very slow, and the parts of its 

 mouth are only suitable for fluid food. It cannot feed 

 itself, but is fed and nourished by the ants just in, 

 the same way as they feed each other, from mouth to 

 mouth. In return the beetle yields each time a very 

 pleasant-flavored juice : the ants lick this up, pressing the 

 juice-yielding part with their jaws in every possible, but 

 non-injurious fashion. As soon as an ant has given 

 a Claviger anything to eat, or rather to drink, after a 

 previous communication with their feelers, it indemnifies 

 itself by sucking at its body. This whole proceeding is 

 clearly a sort of refined gluttony, for it would have no sense 

 merely as a matter of nourishment, as the ant must give 

 as much, or more, food material to the beetle than the 

 latter is able to return. And this is the more likely as the 

 ants are always regarded as gluttons. If, for instance, 

 honey is given to them, of which they are very fond, they 

 will leave everything in the lurch, even their larvae, in order 

 to swallow as much as possible, while they will not do this 

 with other things they like less, as the juices of insects. 



The Claviger species always stay in the nest. A seeing Sta- 

 phylinus, a large species of beetle (Lomechusa ; Atemdes) which 

 has been observed by Lespes, leads a very changeful life. 

 It has fully developed wings and flies about outside the 

 nest during the greater part of the day. But it is unable to 

 procure its own food, and when pressed by hunger returns 

 to the nest to be fed by the ants. Lespes has seen one 

 of these approach an ant, and communicate its want 

 by touching it with its feelers. When the meal was 

 over, the well-bred Staphylinus offered its abdomen to its 

 feeder, so as to discharge its debt of obligation. These 

 beetles behave just like naughty boys, who are always 

 playing about outside, and only come home when meal-time 

 is near. Their outer appearance in no fashion betrays that 

 they are so clumsy and helpless as not even to be able to 

 find their own food. 



E. Schroder (" Zoolog. Gardens," 1867, p. 227) saw a 

 specimen of the Lomechusa strumosa fed and milked by red- 

 brown ants, the body of the beetle manifesting a quivering 

 movement of delight so long as the stroking lasted. Another 

 species of Staphylinus (Mynnedonid) is an enemy of the 



