THE BEETLE GENUS PARALIMULODES BRUCH 
IN NORTH AMERICA, WITH NOTES ON 
MORPHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR 
(COLEOPTERA: LIMULODIDAE) i 
By E. 0. Wilson, T. Eisner, and B. D. Valentine 
Biological Laboratories, Harvard University 
The family Limulodidae was erected by Seevers and 
Dybas in 1943 to receive the staphylinid subfamily Ceph- 
aloplectinae and the trichopterygid subfamily Limulodinae. 
It includes a small number of species with body form con- 
spicuously modified for a myrmecophilous existence: body 
tear-shaped or oblong, head covered by the pronotum, base 
of the antennae protected by deep fossae, labrum in re- 
pose contiguous with the mentum, etc. These specializa- 
tions are of the type generally characterizing “loricate 
synoeketes”, ant guests more or less indifferently toler- 
ated by their hosts and protected from occasional molesta- 
tion by a shielded body form. 
Of the five limulodid genera recognized by Seevers and 
Dybas, the most specialized and obscure is Paralimulodes 
Bruch. This genus has hitherto been known only from 
four specimens of the single species, P. ivasinanni Bruch, 
taken with a colony of the army ant N eivamyrmex spegaz- 
zinii (Emery) at La Plata, Argentina in 1919. It was 
therefore a matter of some interest when the genus was 
recently rediscovered, this time in the southeastern United 
States. Living material was maintained with the host ant 
colonies in artificial nests long enough to record some as- 
pects of behavior, and enough preserved material was ob- 
tained to fill in most of the important detail inadequately 
covered by Bruch’s original description. New information 
obtained in this study is presented in the sections below. 
Distribution and taxonomic status of the North Ameri- 
can popidation. Over two hundred specimens, all appar- 
ently belonging to the same species, were collected by Wil- 
son at the following three localities in central and northern 
q^iiblished witli a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at 
U’vard College. 
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