No. 407.] A NEW MYRMECOPHILE. 859 
interesting object, if the species actually produces one. My 
specimens were taken too early in the year, as shown by the 
great number of immature individuals, so that I am unable to 
. make any statements concerning the breeding habits. 
5. It is a singular fact that in every one of my specimens 
of Attaphila the antennz are incomplete, so that I cannot 
ascertain the full number of joints. There seems to be only 
one explanation of this, vzz., that the antenna have been 
clipped off by the ants, either by the minims, which are 
continually trimming the fungus hyphae, or by the large 
workers, which cut up the pieces of leaves brought in by 
the medium-sized workers. It is easy to understand how an 
insect like a cockroach, living in the midst of thousands of ants 
which are continually opening and closing their scissor-like 
mandibles, should be certain sooner or later to have its long 
antenna cropped. One wonders how the tarsi of the cockroach 
escape the same treatment. The human habit of cropping the 
tails of horses and the ears and tails of dogs may be said to be 
remotely paralleled by the leaf-cutting ants when they inad- 
vertently clip the antenna of their household insects. The 
treatment to which the cockroaches are subjected in the 
nests of Azta fervens — a treatment which they have probably 
undergone for ages— suggests an interesting problem for those 
who may still believe in the inheritance of mutilations. 
The number of antennal joints that escape the scissors of 
the ants varies in forty-five specimens, in which they were 
counted on both sides, from three to eleven. In seventeen 
of these specimens the number of joints is the same in both 
antennae, the variations being: 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, and 10-10. 
In twenty-one cases the two antennz differ by only a single 
joint, the variations being: 7-8, 8-9, 9-10, 10-11. In seven 
specimens the discrepancy between the two antennz is greater, 
being 3-9, 5-7, 5-9, 7-9. Thus in thirty-eight out of forty- 
five specimens the cropped antennz are very nearly or quite 
symmetrical. I am unable to explain this singular condition, 
which can hardly be a mere coincidence. It is probable that 
in this symmetrical and cropped form the antenna of the 
Attaphila are more like those of the ant, and as they are kept 
