446 



paussid^;. 



tufts of hairs which are found in thcdivision of the pronotum in 

 Paussus, at the lateral basal edges of the same in Pleuropterus, and 

 in other situations in other species or genera, are probably the 

 centres or, at all events, the holders of this secretion. As a rule 

 the Paussid^e live in the nests of terrestrial ants, but, as pointed 

 out by Sharp, they have been found in nests of Gremastogaster in 

 the spines of Acacia fistulbsa. Wasmann, who has paid more 

 attention to this subject than anyone else, says that most of the 

 PAUSSiDiE, whose hosts are known (and there are comparatively 

 few) live with species of the genus P7ieidole; only a few live 

 with Acaniholepis, Gremastogaster, Aphamog aster, Ischnomyrmeoo, and 

 Tetramorium (Xiphomyrmeoc). A new and very strange species of 

 Paussus (P. desneuxi) will be found described in this volume 

 (p. 475), which was taken in a nest of Tetramorium tortuosum. 



Early Stages. 



Erichson published a description of a larva which he believed to 

 belong unquestionably to this family, but he appears to have been 

 in error, and, as a matter of fact, authentic larvae have only quite 

 recently been discovered. These are described by Dr. A. G-. 

 Boving (Vidensk. Meddel. naturh. Eoren. Copenhagen, 1907, 

 p. 133), who says that several larvae, pupae, and imagines of 

 P. Icannegieteri, AVasm., were found by Dr. Hjalmar Jenson, of 

 Buitenzorg, in an ants' -nest at Pangerango, Java. The insects 

 are in the Zoological Museum at Copenhagen, and their identity 

 is quite certain, because the characteristic antennae of the group 

 can be seen under the pupal skin in one of the specimens. The 

 larva (of which excellent figures are given by Dr. Boving) is 

 typically carnivorous, and is eminently adapted for a myrmeco- 

 philous life, bearing a strong resemblance in many points to 

 the termitophilous larvae of the Carabids, Glyptus sculptilis and 

 Physocrotaphus ceylonicus. It is broad, with the thoracic and 

 abdominal segments much swollen, and is remarkable from the fact 

 that the mandibles have on their inner side a moveable prostheca 

 or additional lobe ; the eyes are rudimentary or wanting ; in many 

 points it resembles the Carabid larvae, but differs in the construc- 

 tio7i of the mandibles, the legs, and the eighth abdominal segment. 

 Boving's translation is somewhat involved and hard to under- 

 stand, but apparently he means that it is fundamentally, but not 

 superficially, Adephagid, for he says, "the larva cannot be called 

 Carabiform at all, though, on the other hand, it has to belong to 

 the Coleoptera Adephaga, just like the Carabiform larva.-' 



The chief writer on the family is Westwood, who paid parti- 

 cular attention to it, and in his well known, but expensive 

 works, 'Arcana Entomologica ' (1845) and ' Thesaurus Entomo- 

 logicus oxoniensis ' (1873), described and figured nearly all the 

 known species. In 1887 Eaffray published his well known work 

 ■** Materiaux pour servir a l'etude des Colcppteres de la Pamille 

 des Paussides " (Nouv. Arch. Mus. Paris), and since that time 



