RELATIONS OF ANTS TO OTHER INSECTS. 353 



make them excrete the honey-dew and know exactly where to expect 

 the evacuated liquid. 



3. The ants protect the aphids. Several observers have seen the 

 ants driving away predatory insects. Biisgen's observations on Chry- 

 sopa larvae are cited above (p. 345). Ferton (1890), speaking of 

 Tapinoma crraticum and its aphids, says: "While observing the aphid- 

 hunting Hymenoptera in their attacks on their prey, I was impressed 

 with the jealous surveillance of the ants, and the protracted manoeuvres 

 of the hunters in deceiving these guardians. Cemonus nnicolor Fabr. 

 and Pcinphredon insigne V. d. L., which I was especially able to follow, 

 showed by their detours and subterfuges that their real enemy is not 

 the aphid, but the ant which protects it." Indeed, the fierce watchful- 

 ness of Formica sanguined or F. rufa must be apparent to any observer 

 who disturbs these ants while they are attending their aphids. The 

 former at once open their mandibles and rush at the intruder and the 

 latter throw back their heads, sit up with the tips of their gasters 

 directed forward and discharge volleys of formic acid in the direction 

 whence they are threatened. Belt has observed the workers of Phei- 

 dole protecting their membracids in a similar manner. 



4. Many aphidicolous ants, when disturbed, at once seize and carry 

 their charges in their mandibles to a place of safety, showing very 

 plainly their sense of ownership and interest in these helpless creatures. 



5. This is also exhibited by all ants that harbor root-aphids and 

 root-coccids in their nests. Not only are these insects kept in confine- 

 ment by the ants, but they are placed by them on the roots. In order 

 to do this the ants remove the earth from the surfaces of the roots and 

 construct galleries and chambers around them so that the Homoptera 

 may have easy access to their food and even move about at will. 



6. Many aphidicolous and coccidicolous ants, as was shown in a 

 former chapter (pp. 223, 224) construct, often at some distance from 

 their nests, little closed pavilions or sheds of earth, carton or silk, as a 

 protection for their cattle and for themselves (Figs. 205-209). This 

 singular habit may be merely a more recent development from the older 

 and more general habit of excavating tunnels and chambers about roots 

 and subterranean stems. 



7. The solicitude of the ants not only envelops the adult aphids and 

 coccids, but extends also to their eggs and young. Numerous observers 

 (Huber (1810), Lubbock (1896), Lichtenstein (1870, i877~'8o), Del 

 Guercio, Forbes (1894), Weed (1891), Shouteden (1902), Mordwilko 

 (1907), Webster (1907), and others) have observed ants (species of 

 Lasius} in the autumn collecting and storing aphid eggs in the chambers 

 of their nests, caring for them through the winter and in the spring 



24 



