156 ANIMAL LIFE 



ences among themselves, being divided into small workers, 

 large workers, and soldiers. The workers are not, as with 

 the bees, all infertile females, but they are both male and 

 female, both being infertile. Although the life of the ant 

 communities is much less familiar and fully known than 

 that of the bees, it is even more remarkable in its speciali- 

 zations and elaborateness. The ant home, or nest, or formi- 

 cary, is, with most species, a very elaborate underground, 

 many-storied labyrinth of galleries and chambers. Certain 

 rooms are used for the storage of food ; certain others as 

 " nurseries " for the reception and care of the young ; and 

 others as stables for the ants' cattle, certain plant-lice or 

 scale-insects which are sometimes collected and cared for by 

 the ants. The food of ants comprises many kinds of vege- 

 table and animal substances, but the favorite food, or " na- 

 tional dish," as it has been called, is a sweet fluid which is 

 produced by certain small insects, the plant-lice (Aphidae) 

 and scale-insects (Coccidae). These insects live on the sap 

 of plants ; rose-bushes are especially favored with their pres- 

 ence. The worker ants (and we rarely see any ants but 

 the wingless workers, the winged males and females appear- 

 ing out of the nest only at mating time) find these honey- 

 secreting insects, and gently touch or stroke them with their 

 feelers (antennae), when the plant-lice allows tiny drops of 

 the honey to issue from the body, which are eagerly drunk 

 by the ants. It is manifestly to the advantage of the ants 

 that the plant-lice should thrive ; but they are soft-bodied, 

 defenseless insects, and readily fall a prey to the wander- 

 ing predaceous insects like the lady-birds and aphis lions. 

 So the ants often guard small groups of plant-lice, attack- 

 ing, and driving away the would-be ravagers. When the 

 branch on which the plant-lice are gets withered and dry, 

 the ants have been observed to carry the plant-lice care- 

 fully to a fresh, green branch. In the Mississippi Valley a 

 certain kind of plant-louse lives on the roots of corn. Its 

 eggs are deposited in the ground in the autumn and hatch 



