No. 403.] ECITON SUMICHRASTI NORTON. 573 
rable illustration of the truth of some of Wasmann’s remarks 
concerning these cases of mimicry. Since the Ecitons are 
blind, the color of the ecitophiles is of no consequence and 
may differ from that of the ants, — although in the present 
case there is great similarity even in coloration, — but the 
form and surface sculpture of the guest insect are of the 
greatest importance. Wasmann believes that the resemblance 
in sculpture between the staphylinids and their hosts — rough 
beetles living with the opaque species of Eciton, and smooth 
beetles with shining species of the ant — enables the former 
to prey on the eggs and larva of the Ecitons or to share their 
booty without being suspected as aliens. It is, indeed, quite 
probable that we have here a new and elsewhere unknown 
form of mimicry —a deception of the sense of touch which 
must be extraordinarily keen in these blind ants. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, 
AUSTIN, April 5, 1900. 
POSTSCRIPT. 
Since the above account was written it has been possible to make a few 
additional observations of interest on our Texan Ecitons. The insect which 
I designated as 9 B died May 18, apparently of exhaustion, after deposit- 
ing nearly all her eggs. @ A continued to live in the nest and to produce 
a few eggs from time to time. On April 20, when I disturbed the clustered 
workers, I was dumfounded to find them covering also another queen 
intermediate in length and coloration between 9 4 and 9 B! Now this 
queen, which may be called 9 C, could not possibly have existed as an 
insect larger than the largest workers (4.5 mm. long) among the thousand 
or more collected and placed in the artificial nest March ro. Soon after 
the colony was taken it was kept for about two weeks in a glass jar and 
had been the subject of numerous experiments on the clustering habit. A 
large insect, 16 mm. long and with shining white bands on the abdomen, 
could not have escaped my attention like the small mimetic ecitophile above 
described. Her presence in the colony can only be explained on the 
assumption that she was developed within the nest during less than a 
month from an insect closely resembling a worker in size and appearance. 
The workers must have been feeding her abundantly, notwithstanding their 
