AN EXTRAORDINARY ANT-GUEST.! 
WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. 
Since Sir John Lubbock's discovery of the association of 
certain Phoridze (Phora formicarum Ver. and Platyphora Lub- 
bocki Ver.) with ants,? several interesting additions to the 
number of known myrmecophiles and termitophiles belonging 
to this family of Diptera have been recorded. Among others 
a singular group of wingless Phoride (“ Stethopathidz’’) has 
been described by Wasmann? from specimens captured in the 
nests of termites, and Brues has recorded the occurrence of 
several somewhat similar forms in the nests of certain Texan 
ants belonging to the genera Eciton and Solenopsis.* Very 
recently Pergande® has published an entertaining note on the 
habits of a phorid (Apocephalus pergandei Coq.) which causes 
the workers of the common wood-ant (Camponotus pennsyl- 
vanicus) both figuratively and literally to “lose their heads," 
for the interior of this important portion of the ant's body 
furnishes the fly-larva with food and a retreat for pupation. 
Far less injurious to its hosts is a myrmecophilous phorid 
which I propose to describe in the following pages. Unfortu- 
nately I have seen only its larval and pupal stages, but these 
are passed under such unusual circumstances that the discov- 
ery of the imaginal insect could scarcely supply details of very 
great additional interest. As the insect is not very common, 
many months may pass before I am able to complete my study 
1 Contributions from the Zovlogical Laboratory of the University of Texas, 
à Lubbock, Sir John. Ants, Bees, and Wasps. 1881. 
8 Wasmann, E. Termitoxenia, ein neues flügelloses, physogastres Dipteren- 
genus aus Termitennestern, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool. Bd. xlvii, No. 4 (1900), 
XXIII 
pp. 599-617, Taf. X . 
4 Brues, C. T. Two New Myrmecophilous Genera of Aberrant Phoridz from 
Texas, Am. Nat., vol. xxxv, No. 413 (May, 1901), pP- 337-356, 11 figs. 
5 Pergande, Theo. The Ant-decapitating Fly, Proceedings Ent. Soc. Wash., 
vol. iv, No. 4 (1901), pp- 497-502, 2 figs. 
1007 
