516 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
tion to the ants nearly analogous to that of the cow to man. They are 
retained and cared for by their owners for the liquid that they exude 
from their bodies when tickled by the milkers’ antennae. Certain 
Staphylinids also exude a substance of which the ants seem to be fond, 
and in return they are fed by the ants. It will be remembered that 
Wasmann has pointed out that, as a consequence of this relation, the 
palpi of the beetles have become more or less noticeably reduced in size, 
M. Janet finds that in the ant-hills in the neighbourhood of Paris the 
dependence of Clciviger testaceus on ants is so complete that the beetles 
return when separated from them. M. Janet finds that Lepismids also 
live with ants. Twenty-one were separated from their ants, and fed 
upon a mixture of honey, sugar, flour, and yolk of egg. At the end of 
21- years only nine remained in good condition ; those willingly ate 
the drops of food presented to them on the points of fine pincers. Those 
left and reared along with the ants were much more extensive than the 
separated lot. When the ants were fed with their customary supply of 
small drops of honey, the Lepismids, by their agitation, manifested that 
they had become aware of the proximity of very desirable food. Mean- 
while the ants that had discovered the honey gorged themselves to 
fulness ; on returning to the neighbourhood of their companions w r ko 
had not found a supply, they seemed to be requested by the latter to 
give some, a request that was not refused. Soon pairs of ants became 
locked together, the one giving, the other receiving a drop of honey. 
As quickly as a Lepismid perceived this condition of affairs, he rushed 
in between the pair and intercepted the drop or a portion of it in its 
passage, and then retreated precipitately, but only to treat another pair 
in a similar manner, and so on till its hunger was appeased. 
Lepisma, then, is not in the ant-hill for an exchange of services like 
some of the Staphylinids, or who offer to be milked, like the aphid, but 
is there as a more or less wary freebooter. 
Courtship of certain Acridiidse.* — Prof. E. B. Poulton gives an 
account of some observations made in the exceedingly favourable weather 
in the early autumn of last year. His observations were almost all made 
in the neighbourhood of the Weisshorn Hotel. The sombre brown male 
of Pezotettix pedeslris did not stridulate audibly, and assumed no remark- 
able attitudes, but lay in wait for the female and leapt upon her 
unawares. The female almost invariably tried to escape from the male, 
but if he succeeded in holding her for a short time she submitted and 
pairing took place. Before pairing, the male was seen to nibble the 
female gently with liis mandibles, and through the whole time that he 
was holding her he continually moved his short legs up and down alter- 
nately. Prof. Poulton suggests that this movement is a vestige of true 
stridulation, and that it may still perhaps be of value in influencing the 
female in some way. The behaviour of Gornphocerus sibiricus was very 
different. The males court the females with much ceremony, stretching 
out their four palpi, stridulating, and in some cases patting or stroking 
the female. In spite of this, a successful courtship was never seen, 
although males were continually pursuing females. The author is of 
opinion that the habits recorded by him were greatly influenced by 
* Trans. Eutomol. See. London, 189G, pp. 233-52. 
