Vol. 72 
PSYCHE 
No. 2 
June, 1965 
OBSERVATIONS ON MICROTUS NESTING IN 
ANT MOUNDS * 1 
By Gerald Scherba 
California State College at San Bernardino 
A large number of different kinds of organisms inhabit social insect 
nests and their relationship to their host varies from simple sheltering 
during winter, through predation, to complex interactions involving 
specialized secretory glands and other structures. There is a rich 
literature describing these myrmecophiles and termitophiles and an 
elaborate terminolovv defines each of the kinds of relationships be- 
tween symbiont and host. 
The overwhelming majority of these nest inhabitants are arthro- 
pods, especially beetles of the family Staphylinidae and allied families. 
However, vertebrates also inhabit social insect nests. Nichols (i94°) 
reported the synbranch eel Synbranchus marmoratus Block from 
moist cavities within nests of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens in 
South America. In Illinois the author has observed wood frogs, 
Rana sylvatica overwintering in nests of Formica ulkei. Donisthorpe 
(1927) recorded the slow-worm Anguis fragilis L. within Formica 
fusca mounds in England ; the blind lizard A mphisbaena within A tta 
nests on the Amazon; the legless lizard Caecilia annulosa within 
! fungus growing ant nests in Guiana; and several species of snakes 
living with ants in Australia. The Nile Monitor Varanus niloticus 
j (Linn.) incubates its eggs within the termitaria of N asutitermes in 
1 South Africa (Snyder, 1929; Cowles, 1930). Snakes, lizards, and 
I geckos use termite nests for egg-laying in Jamaica. These animals 
occupy cavities within the termite nest that were originally excavated 
by Parakets (Hindwood, 1959). 
Among the birds, at least 8 species are known to breed in arboreal 
or terrestrial nests of termites, or in some cases, ants. The list in- 
j eludes 23 species of kingfishers, 13 species of parrots, 4 species of 
1 Project 80 of the Jackson Hole Biological Research Station, supported by 
I funds from the National Science Foundation, Grant No. G-23423. 
Manuscript received by the editor March 14, 1965. 
127 
SKSTHSORi*.' 
mSTITUTIG* 
