PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 337 
yellow ant, which, according to Miiller’s very curious account of its habits, 
confirmed by M. Wesmael, keeps in its nest the singular little Claviger 
foveolatus (which Mr. Westwood has discovered in this abode in England), 
and obtains from the bristles terminating its elytra a gummy secretion 
which it uses for food, as it does that obtained from Aphides, feeding the 
Clavigers in return for this service, and carefully guarding them from straying, 
which if they attempt it seizes them with its jaws.1_ Their herds of these 
hard-coated yellow cattle are often numerous ; for when paying a visit in 
1829 to my friend Professor Germar at Halle in Prussia, he showed me a 
whole row of specimens from which he begzed me to select at pleasure, 
all of which, if [ recollect right, he had obtained from one ant’s nest. It 
is probable that another species of Claviger (C. longicornis), which M. 
Robert found also in an ant’s nest, is made a similar use of by them. 
One of the singular circumstances in the history of ants, and which 
requires further explanation, is, that besides the two beetles just named, 
many other species of the same tribe, mostly of small size, are also found 
in their nests, and so constantly, that it cannot arise from accident. My 
friend M. Chevrolat of Paris, who has been more successful in procuring 
new and rare coleopterous insects from this habitat than perhaps any other 
entomologist, has obtained the greatest number from the nests of Mormica 
rufa Latr., in which he has found Lomechusa strumosa and dentata, a new 
species of Xantholinus, Dendrophilus pygmaeus Payk., D. formicetorum 
Aubé, and D, Guerini Chevr., and Monotoma conicollis, and M. formice- 
torum Chevr. He has also found several specimens of Lomechusa paradoxa 
in the nest of Formica cunicularia Latr., and Abreus globulus Payk., 
Batrisus formicarius De la Porte, and B. oculatus, and B. venustus Aubé, 
as well as his singular new insect Myrmechivenus subterraneus, in other 
nests ; and M. Reiche has also found Helerius quadratus in the nest of 
Myrmica unifasciata, as has Mr. MacLeay a crepitating species of Cerapterus 
in ants’ nests in Australia.? Besides the above, M. Chevrolat has observed 
in some of these ants’ nests isolated larvae, as he supposes, of a Clythra 
clothed with a case of gluten combined with particles of earth and small 
stones*; and Mr. Westwood states that he has often found in the nests 
both of Formice and Myrmice many very young specimens of a white 
colour of a species of Oniscus, of which genus also, M. Lund in Brazil 
observed many of the ants of a column of Myrmica typhios to carry each 
an individual beneath the abdomen. Thus we have sixteen or seventeen 
coleopterous insects of different genera and species, besides one or more 
species of Oniscus, habitually residing in ants’ uests ; but whether these, 
like the Clavigers, are subservient to the purposes of the ants, or whether 
they make the ants subservient to theirs, or what is the precise object of 
the companionship, must be left for future investigation, and are points to 
which I would strongly recommend your attention.® 
} Germar, Magazin der Entom. iii. t. 2. Westwood, Mod. Class. of Ins. i. 176. 
2 Westwood, Mod. Class. of Ins. i. xiie 
5 Silbermann, Revue Zntom. iii. 263. 
+ Westwood, Mod. Class. of Ins. ii. 234. 
5 As there can be little doubt that several of M. Chevrolat’s insects might be 
found in ants’ nests in this country, as well as Claviger foveolatus, if sought for in 
the way which this indefatigable entomologist employs, it may not be amiss to 
indicate his mode of procedure, Before attacking an ants’ nest he ties the legs of 
his pantaloons oyer his boots and puts on gloves, and then proceeds to shovel the 
v4 
