No.413.] ABERRANT PHORID.£ FROM TEXAS. 353 
large clusters and it might be dangerous for a myrmecophile to 
venture into these. It apparently prefers to move about in 
the vacant galleries of the nest.! 
Some females which were placed in an artificial nest con- 
taining a number of Æ. cecum workers soon made themselves 
at home and appeared much more at ease than the ants, which 
appear to be quite stupid and slow in adapting themselves to 
new conditions. Some of the flies preferred to rest upon the 
glass walls of the nest away from the ants. Others darted 
among the ants in the largest groups, while the ants regarded 
them without the slightest animosity. Any other fly or small 
insect introduced into the nest was viciously attacked by the 
ants and soon killed to serve as food for a large group of ants 
which had taken part in its destruction. Even dead legs and 
wings were picked up and carried about. Some Ecitomyias, 
however, which had presumably died a natural death, were not 
molested by the ants, and remained for a long time undisturbed. 
One of the Ecitomyias was apparently feeding upon some 
deposit left by the ants as they moved about, and it also 
approached some of the less excited ones after the manner of 
Myrmecophila, but I could not see that it obtained anything 
from the bodies of the ants. 
Throughout the winter we had seen the females in almost 
every large nest which we examined, but although probably 
half a hundred nests were seen during that time, not until 
February did we positively find any males. In a large flourish- 
ing nest of E. cecum which extended under stones for a distance 
of nearly twenty feet, we found numerous female and two male 
Specimens. Although the male has ample wings, it did not 
attempt to fly, but hopped about in a similar but much less 
agile manner than the female, which is often exceedingly quick 
and hard to catch. The male does not hold the wings flat 
! We have not been able to observe how they manage to follow the ants about 
as they make their regular changes of nest, for this ant does not remain in the 
Same nest for any length of time, except probably during the breeding season. 
Other myrmecophiles of this species (e.g., Staphylinide) march along in proces- 
Sion with their hosts as they make their curious journeys. As Æ. cecum moves 
only by tunneling underground, they would experience no difficulty in keeping 
company with the ants. Ne 
