Trisects, 7025 



goofl strong brown paper on ibe ground ; it is preferable to clotb, because the ants are 

 not so easily detached from the latter. Next, lift off the ants wilh both your hands 

 from that part of the nest you are going to carry away to your paper; and now, as 

 though the place had been set fire to, you see thousands of little streams poured forth 

 to extinguish it. This is the formic acid they are discharging in self-defence, and wilh 

 which they seem to be liberally supplied. The position they assume to enable them 

 to do it is a very droll one. They stand upon the back of the abdomen supported 

 with their third pair of legs: this brings the anus, from which it is discharged, so that 

 the stream ascends in nearly a perpendicular direction. Should it by chance get into 

 the eyes it causes extreme pain, and it makes a sensible hot feeling wherever 

 it touches the face, as though blistering it : it tastes like very strong vinegar 

 and smells very like blacking. Having lifted as much as you can conveniently 

 do with both hands (it is bad policy to take too much at once), drop it on your paper 

 and let it lie for a few minutes that the ants may wander out of it, and in the mean- 

 time you can be cutting a small branch from some neighbouring fir-tree, to serve as a 

 brush to brush away the ants which have and are wandering over the parts of your 

 paper uncovered by the piece of nest. After you have cleared the bulk of them off, 

 remove your paper to a distance from the nest, and then proceed (o investigate the 

 contents, which you must " persuade '' into a heap at one end. Then with a piece of 

 stick or a knife-blade draw it down on to the body of the paper, a little at a time, and 

 watch carefully. That little pitch-coloured shiny thing, about one -eighth of 

 an inch long, is Saprinus piceus — hence its specific name ; you will see it move pre- 

 sently. That larger black thing, not quite so shiny, is Dendiophilus pygmaeus, and 

 that dirty cinnamon -coloured piece of rotten twig you fancied had life in it, from its 

 falling over just now, is no other than one of the Monotoraas, of which there are two 

 species to be met with, namely, M. angusticollis and M. conicicollis. Then the Staphy- 

 linidae have many members which luxuriate in this sort of life, Quedius brevis being 

 the largest representative. Next in length is a Xantholinus (ochraceus), a fellow you 

 find folded up in the most uncomfortable position you could conceive it possible for 

 an insect to take. Fancy your finger wilh another joint to it and bent up towards the 

 palm of your hand — as you can do without closing the hand — and the extreme joint 

 folded underneath the one next to it, and this will give you some idea of it. Well, 

 this is its position, and so it lies there. I am, however, not certain that it is 

 peculiarly an ant's-nest species, although it seems common there. Then there is 

 Dinarda Maerckelii, easily known from its flat, broad appearance across the shoul- 

 ders, and having reddish elytra. It is very active, and takes precedence of all the 

 others in this respect. Next, a long narrow slender Staphylinus, called Leptacinus 

 Formicelorum, and Homalota flavipes, Thiasophila angulata and Oxypoda formiceli- 

 cola, may be observed trying to conceal themselves in every little cluster of the debris. 

 The ants never molest them, and they seem to live on the very best terms. No one, I 

 believe, has ever shown how these creatures obtain their living in the nests ; probably 

 the greater part of them prey upon the larvae of Acari and other small insects infesting 

 the nests, and which may be hatched there for some wise purpose, or brought by the 

 ants themselves on the small pieces of fir-leaves and bits of sticks. They are for ever 

 buzzing about. The whole of the before-named species of Coleoptera are to be found 

 in the nest of a single species of am (Formica rufa) and many others are also known to 

 be tenants of the same myrmecophilous pile. I have, however, confined myself to those 



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