1977] 
Lesion — Paussids in West Africa 
215 
3 
cr 
CD 
0 N D J F 
MAMJ JASO 
1969 
1970 
Fig. 3. Total paussids trapped (histogram) and rainfall, in monthly classes. 
Paussids are entirely dependent for food upon ants (LeMasne, 
1961). Ants in the West African forest zone are essentially preda- 
tory. Prey abundance there is more or less trimodal. There is a 
major peak in the first wet sunny season, around April, tied to the 
new flush and essentially comprising foliage feeders (augmented by 
decomposers). A second, less obvious, peak occurs in October- 
November, the second wet sunny season, and is again made up of 
foliage feeders, augmented this time by the fungivores. A third 
peak occurs around January, its date less reliable because of the 
variability in the intensity of the dry period from year to year: it 
sees a peak in insects associated with fruit or seeds (Gibbs & Leston, 
1970; Leston, 1972). 
It is suggested that the ultimate factors concerned in the pro- 
duction of paussids are directly tied to the seasonal availability of 
prey to their host ants, just as in Mantodea the ultimate factors 
are available prey. Elsewhere (Leston, 1978) it is indicated the 
seasonal production of alate male doryline ants, as with paussids 
reaching a peak in the first wet sunny season, is geared to the op- 
timal availability of prey to the workers of the species involved. 
Once again it has been found that the seasonal pattern in a tropical 
