A CONSIDERATIOK OB^ THE IXSECT POPTJLATIOX ASSOCIATED 
'WITH Cow Dung at Crawley^ W.A. 
239 
Small amber-coloured ants frequently form colonies under dung cakes of 
all stages in spite of the conclusions of Forel and Wheeler tliat they will not 
do so except to seek shelter from the sun or moisture, both of which are amply 
available at Crawley under stones or vegetation. Again, the odour does 
not prevent ants from penetrating into even fresh dung, although Wheeler 
(1926) refers to their dislike of bad odours such as those of carrion and mam- 
malian faeces. 
Order 8— LEPIDOPTEKA. 
Three larvae collected on the 5th September, 1941, on top of late fifth 
stage co-w dung about three months old, ]<ept in the laboratory. They were 
apparently feeding on the dry and crumbling fibres of the cake. The three 
larvae pupated five days later. After an additional 23 days, one gave rise 
to a small Oecophorid moth. The larvae have not been seen in the field. 
The association of these larvae with cow dung is of the same order as 
Monopsis rusticella, Hubn., a Tineid moth breeding in the wool of an old sheep 
carcase reported by Fuller (1934), being divorced in time and space from those 
insects which form the succession proper. 
8. OTHER ANIMALS ASSOCIATED MTTH COW DUNG AT CRAWLEY. 
A. Other ARTHROPODA. 
1. ACARINA. 
A large number of mites belonging to the Parasitidae are found in cow 
dung at Crawley. They breed in the dung and frequent all stages except the 
final part of the fifth. A considerable -variation in the mite population of 
indix idual cakes is noticeable. 
In the field both flies and beetles are found carrying numbei’s of mites 
which may merely hang by their claws or adhere by a secretion. Procto- 
phanes sculpius, Hope, is especially liable to act as a carrier, as its clumsy build 
and slowness of movement prevent it from dislodging its passengers. 
Under laboratory conditions, where dung is kept covered, iuites multiply 
to a remarkable extent. Though mites have not been seen, except in a few- 
doubtful cases, to molest them, immature stages of flies and beetles diminish 
in number in dungs w'ith a high Acarine population density. 
At Katanning in August, 1941, no Parasitids were seen on cow dung in the 
town itself and very few in material five miles away, a strong ntrast to the 
large numbers present at Crawley in the same month. 
2. CRUSTACEA. 
Fourth and fairly moist fifth stage cow dung offe shelters associations 
of Porcellio sp. at Crawley. They offer little or no competition to such im- 
mature stages of Hydro23hilids or Scarabacids as are present. 
B. NEMATOBA. 
If kept in closed vessels, cow dung is an ideal nidus for these minute 
worms. In the field they are not noticeable as a rule until pupae of Cercyon 
begin to appear in fourth stage dung cakes. A number of these have bunches 
of Nematodes hanging from the appendages or on the ventral body surface, 
often numerous enough to force the wings of the j^ujDa into an unnatural |)osi- 
