I.] METAMORPHOSES OF INSECTS. 13 



had not a slave to feed them. I found, however, that 

 I could keep them in life and health for months if I 

 gave them a slave for an hour or two in a week to clean 

 and feed them. 



Ants also keep a variety of beetles and other insects 

 in their nests. That they have some reason for this 

 seems clear, because they readily attack any unwel- 

 come intruder ; but what that reason is, we do not yet 

 know. If these insects are to be regarded as the 

 domestic animals of the ants, then we must admit that 

 the ants possess more domestic animals than we do. 



Some indeed of these beetles produce a secretion 

 which is licked by the ants like the honeydew ; there 

 are others, however, which have not yet been shown 

 to be of any use to the ants, and yet are rarely, if 

 ever, found, excepting in ants' nests. 



M. Lespes, who regards these insects as true 

 domestic animals, has recorded l some interesting 

 observations on the relations between one of them 

 (Claviger Duvalit) and the ants (Lasius niger) with 

 which it lives. This species of Claviger is never met 

 with except in ants' nests, though on the other hand 

 there are many communities of Lasius which possess 

 none of these beetles; and M. Lespes found that 

 when he placed Clavigers in a nest of ants which 

 had none of their own, the beetles were immediately 

 killed and eaten, the ants themselves being on the 

 other hand kindly received by other communities of 

 the same species. He concludes from these observa- 

 tions that some communities of ants are more ad- 

 vanced in civilization than others ; the suggestion is 



1 " Sur la Domestication des Clavigers par les Fourmis." Bull, de 

 la Soc. d'Anthropologie de Paris, 1868, p. 315. 



