. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. onaryand attached to the wallsof the galleries by meansof their creeping-soles, as-sume a deep brown color,while the integument be-comes indurated and morebrittle and forms thepuparium enclosing thepupa proper. The flyemerges by breaking offthe anterior dorsal thirdof the puparium. Ver-hoeff (1892) has observedthe fly in the act of ovi-positing in the nest. Itwas repeatedly, drivenaway by the ants (For-mica sanyninca ), but keptreturning until the eggswere deposited. Threespecies of Microdon flieshave been bred from ant-nests in Europe (M. mut
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. onaryand attached to the wallsof the galleries by meansof their creeping-soles, as-sume a deep brown color,while the integument be-comes indurated and morebrittle and forms thepuparium enclosing thepupa proper. The flyemerges by breaking offthe anterior dorsal thirdof the puparium. Ver-hoeff (1892) has observedthe fly in the act of ovi-positing in the nest. Itwas repeatedly, drivenaway by the ants (For-mica sanyninca ), but keptreturning until the eggswere deposited. Threespecies of Microdon flieshave been bred from ant-nests in Europe (M. muta-bilis, dcrius and api-fonnis). Though the larvae of our American forms are not infrequent,none had been bred until very recently, when Mr. William T. Davis andmyself (1908^ ) succeeded in raising specimens of J\l. tristis from a num-ber of larvae found in Formica scJiaufussi nests in New Jersey and NewYork. Another species is represented in my collection by some larvaeand pupae which I found in nests of F. obscuripcs, ciliata, etc., in Colo- 26. FIG. 228. Mimetic Staphylinids that live withDoryline ants. (Wasmann.) A. Minieciton pu-lex; B. Ecitomorpha simulans; C, Dorylostethus•wasmanni. .-IXTS. rado. Brues ( 1903/7) has described an extraordinary, lemon-yellowand very convex Microdon larva taken by Professor II. Heath from anot of Mt»i<»ii<»-inin iniiiiiiuiin in California, and I have described avery flat larva from the nest of Pseudoinynna ( 19016 ), so thatthe larva? of at least four North American species are known. AsLea (1893 ) has described a species (.17. ) from Australia, thegenus is probably cosmopolitan. The ants, as a rule, do not seem tonotice the Microdon larvae and pupae and these are left behind when theants move to a new nest. The young larvae seem to shrivel and diewhen removed from the ants, but I have been unable to ascertainwhat they find to eat in the nests. In one of my artificial formicariesthe ants killed a young larv
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
