INTELLIGENCE OF ANTS. 503 



Nursing. This may appropriately be considered in connection 

 with the emotions, as it seems to imply something akin to maternal 

 affection. The eggs will not develop into larvae unless nursed, and 

 the nursing is effected by licking the surface of the eggs, which under 

 the influence of this process increase in size, or grow. In about a 

 fortnight during which time the workers carry the eggs from higher 

 to lower levels of the nest, and vice versa, according to the circum- 

 stances of heat, moisture, etc. the larvae are hatched out, and require 

 no less careful nursing than the eggs. The workers feed them by 

 placing mouths together the larvae stretching out their heads to re- 

 ceive the nourishment after the manner of young birds. When fully 

 grown the larva? spin cocoons, and are then pupae, or the " ants' eggs " 

 of the pheasant-rearers. These require no food, but still need in- 

 cessant attention with reference to warmth, moisture, and cleanli- 

 ness. When the time arrives for their emergence as perfect insects, 

 the workers assist them to get out of their larval cases by biting 

 through the walls of the latter. When it emerges, the newly-born 

 ant is inclosed in a thin membrane like a shirt, which has to be 

 pulled off. "When we see," says Biichner, "how neatly and gently 

 this is done, and how the young creature is then washed, brushed, and 

 fed, we are involuntarily reminded of the nursing of human babies." 

 The young ants are then educated. They are led about the nest and 

 taught their various domestic duties. Later on they learn to distin- 

 guish between friends and foes ; and when an ant's nest is attacked 

 by foreign ants the young ones never join in the fight, but confine 

 themselves to removing the pupa3. That the knowledge of hereditary 

 enemies is not wholly instinctive is proved by the experiment of Forel, 

 who put young uneducated ants of three different species into a glass 

 case with pupae of six other species all the nine species being natu- 

 rally hostile to one another. Yet the young ants did not quarrel, but 

 worked together to tend the pupae. When the latter hatched out, an 

 artificial colony was formed of a number of naturally hostile species, 

 all living together like the " happy families " of the showmen. 



Keeping Aphides. It is well and generally known that various 

 species of ants keep aphides, as men keep milch-cows, to supply a 

 nutritious secretion. Huber first observed this fact, and noticed 

 that the ants collected the eggs of the aphides, and treated them 

 with as much apparent care as they treated their own. When these 

 eggs hatch out, the aphides are usually kept and fed by the ants. 

 Sometimes the stems and branches on which they live are incased 

 by the ants in clay walls, in which doors are left large enough to 

 admit the ants, but too small to allow the aphides to escape. The 

 latter are therefore imprisoned in regular stables. The sweet secre- 

 tion is yielded to the ants by a process of "milking," which consists 

 in the ants stroking the aphides with their antennae. 



Sir John Lubbock has made an interesting addition to our knowl- 



