Ch. XII.] ANTS AND THEIR PROTEGES. 227 



bracts were attended by ants. These leaf-hoppers live 

 in little clusters on shoots of plants and beneath leaves, 

 in which are hoppers in every stage of development 

 eggs, larvse, and adults. I believe it is only the soft- 

 bodied larvae that exude honey. It would take a volume 

 to describe the various species, and I shall confine my 

 remarks to one whose habits I was able to observe with 

 some minuteness. The papaw trees growing in my 

 garden were infested by a small brown species of Mem- 

 brads one of the leaf-hoppers that laid its eggs in a 

 cottony nest by the side of the ribs on the under-part 

 of the leaves. The hopper would stand covering the nest 

 until the young were hatched. These were little soft- 

 bodied dark-coloured insects, looking like aphides, but 

 more robust, and with the hind segments turned up. 

 From the end of these the little larvae exuded drops of 

 honey, and were assiduously attended by small ants 

 belonging to two species of the genus Pheidole, one of 

 them being the same as I have already described as 

 attending the glands on the passion-flower. One tree 

 would be attended by one species, another by the other ; 

 and I never saw the two species on the same tree. A 

 third ant, however a species of HypocUnea which I 

 have mentioned before as a cowardly species, whose nests 

 were despoiled by the Edtons, frequented all the trees, 

 and whenever it found any young hoppers unattended, it 

 would relieve them of their honey, but would scamper 

 away on the approach of any of the Pheidole. The latter 

 do not sting, but they attack and bite the hand if the 

 young hoppers are interfered with. These leaf-hoppers 

 are, when young, so soft-bodied and sluggish in their 

 movements, and there are so many enemies ready to 



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