ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 



AND 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION, 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILADELPHIA. 



VOL. VII. 



OCTOBER, 1896. 



No. 8. 



CONTENTS: 



Oestlund Ants as personal property 



holders 225 



Ottolengui Types in the Neumoegen 



collection 227 



Ricksecker On a new cyanide bottle.. 230 

 Baker Biological studies in ento'gy... 231 



Stanley The praying mantis, etc 232 



Wolcott Coleoptera of central Illinois 234 

 Slosson Singular habit of a Cecido- 

 myid 238 



Spider farming 239 



Fiske List of Rhopalocera, etc 240 



Editorial 243 



Economic Entomology 245 



Notes and News 247 



Entomological Literature 249 



Doings of Societies '.... 249 



Entomological Section 255 



Cockerell The seventy-second Perdita 255 



ANTS AS PERSONAL PROPERTY HOLDERS. 



By O. W. OESTLUND, Minneapolis, Minn. 



It is a well known fact that plant-lice are commonly attended 

 by ants, which feed upon the sweet fluid that the aphis emits 

 from time to time. But it is probably not as well known that 

 ants, in some cases at least, will appropriate such colonies as 

 their own property, and will guard them most effectively against 

 all intruders, especially against ants of a different species that 

 may attempt to get some of the sweet fluid. 



Aphis thaspii is a very common aphis in Minnesota on the 

 umbels of Thaspium aureiim, which seems to be much sought 

 for by ants ; probably on account of the choice quality of the 

 fluid they give, like our own breeds of Jerseys. There are at 

 least four distinct species that are commonly found to attend them. 



Without attempting to give the scientific name of the ants in 

 question, it may suffice to state that one was a small black ant, 

 the second a small brown ant, the third a rather large brown ant, 

 and the fourth a large black ant with the anterior part of the body 

 reddish. As it was noticed that each colony of aphis was attended 



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