74 OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS 
domestic animals than we do ourselves. Miirkel satis- 
fied himself that large nests of Formica rufa might 
contain at least a thousand of such guests;' and I 
believe that the aphides in a large nest of Lasius 
flavus would often be even more numerous. André? 
gives a list of no less than 584 species of insects, 
which are habitually found in association with ants, 
and of which 542 are beetles. 
The association of some of these insects with ants 
may be purely accidental and without significance. 
In some of them no doubt the bond of union is 
merely the selection of similar places of abode; in 
some few others the ants are victimized by parasites of 
which they cannot rid themselves. There are, for 
instance, the parasitic mites, and the small black fly, 
belonging to the genus Phora, which lays her eggs on 
ants, and which I have already mentioned. Then there 
are some insects, such as the caterpillar of that beautiful 
beetle, the rosechafer, which find a congenial place of 
residence among the collection of bits of stick, &c., 
with which certain species of ants make their nests. 
Another class of ant guests are those which reside 
actually in the galleries and chambers of, and with, the 
ants, but which the latter never touch. Of these the 
commonest in England are a species allied to Podura, 
for which T have proposed the name Beckia (Pl. V. 
1 Beit. eur Kenntniss der unter Ameisen lebenden Insekten, 
Mirkel, Germar’s Zeit. f. Ent. 1841, p. 210. 
2 Rev. ct Mag. de Zool. 1874, p. 206. 
