. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 2 14 COLEOPTERA the Faussus then makes no resistance to its hosts; if, however, it be touched, even very slightly, by an observer, it immediately bombards: the ants, as may be imagined, do not approve of this, and run away. Nothing has ever been observed that would lead to the belief that the ants derive any benefit from the presence of the Paussi, except that these guests bear on some part of the body—frequently the great impressions on the pronotum—patches of the peculiar kind of pubescence that exists in many other kinds of ants'-nest beetles, and i
. The Cambridge natural history. Zoology. 2 14 COLEOPTERA the Faussus then makes no resistance to its hosts; if, however, it be touched, even very slightly, by an observer, it immediately bombards: the ants, as may be imagined, do not approve of this, and run away. Nothing has ever been observed that would lead to the belief that the ants derive any benefit from the presence of the Paussi, except that these guests bear on some part of the body—frequently the great impressions on the pronotum—patches of the peculiar kind of pubescence that exists in many other kinds of ants'-nest beetles, and is known in some of them to secrete a substance the ants are fond of, and that the ants have been seen to lick the beetles. On the other hand, the Paussi have been observed to eat the eggs and larvae of the ants. The larva oiPcaissus is not known,^ and Eaffray doubts whether it lives in the ants' nests. There are about 200 species of Paussidae known, Africa, Asia and Australia being their chief countries; one species, P. favieri, is not uncommon in the Iberian peninsula and South Prance, and a single species was formerly found in Brazil. The position the family should Fig. 98. — Paussus cejoha- occupy has been much discussed; the only lotes S. El Hediaz. n i. i, • i i i (After Eaffray.) lorms to which they make any real ap- proximation are Carabidae, of the group Ozaenides, a group of ground beetles that also crepitate. Bur- meister and others have therefore placed the Paussidae in the series Adephaga, but we follow Kaffray's view (he being the most recent authority on the family)," who concludes that this is an anomalous group not intimately connected with any other family of Coleoptera, though having more affinity to Carabidae than to anything else. The recently discovered genus Froto- "paussus has eleven joints to the antennae, and is said to come nearer to Carabidae than the previously known forms did, and we may an- ticipate that a more extensive knowl
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