352 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [VoL. XXXV. 
Internally the gland has a peculiar and complex structure 
(Fig. 11). The secretion seems to be formed in two elongate 
oval bodies lying in the dorsal part of the abdomen, and it is 
apparently carried through some intermediate, somewhat retic- 
ulately arranged cells to the surface of the papilla, which is 
lined with several layers of cells of varied size and form. The 
gland may perhaps supply some 
pleasant secretion for the ants, 
like the tufts of hairs devel- 
oped in myrmecophilous Cole- 
optera, although I have not 
been able to decide by obser- 
vation. Ican find no reference 
to similar glands in any other 
insect, and hope at some future 
Fic. 11. — Ecitomyia wheeleri, n. sp. 
Cross- : . id 
g gland time to study them in detail. 
hitin ring; 
G oi abdomen through Med 
We have found this species 
papilla and extending into abdomen; i, in. g great number of times, always 
re associated with species of the 
ant genus Eciton. Eciton cecum Latr., a totally blind species, 
which tunnels in the earth, seems to be its favorite host, 
although we found it upon one occasion in a nest of £. schmitti 
Emery, a species with very different habits, which lives in 
compact masses under stones, making its trips in search of 
food above ground. 
The Ecitomyias are exceedingly quick and have the habit of 
darting rapidly about in zigzag paths in the way characteristic 
of many myrmecophiles. In the nests of Æ. cæcum they frequent 
those parts of the nest containing the greatest number of ants, 
being very often seen running along the galleries of the ants, 
into which they rapidly disappear when the nest is disturbed. 
Those occurring with Æ. schmitti seem to stay at a greater dis- 
tance from the main body of the ants, but this species makes 
! A very curious coincidence occurs in a new genus of wingless Proctotrupidz 
which occurs in the nests of Eciton cecum. Zt also possesses a sharply defined 
roughening of the integument at exactly the same place that the gland of Ecitomyia 
has its opening! I am sure, however, that there is no gland in connection with it. 
Can it be possible that this has any connection with some way these blind an 
may have of recognizing their habitual nestmates ? 
