THE FORMICIDJE. 203 



larv?e are hatched, more care than ever is required on the part 

 of the laborious insects, for then the ants, which we have noticed 

 as able and industrious architects, have to take their turn in the 

 nursing ; and certainly more attentive, vigilant, and devoted ser- 

 vants could not be found. 



The little vermiform larvae cannot move, but they have the 

 instinct to lift up their heads, and to open their mouths, so as to 

 receive their subsistence from the jaws of the nurses, and they 

 are thus fed like little birds lately hatched. It is not for them- 

 selves alone that the ants seek honey, sugary liquids, and the 

 juice of fruits, with such avidity, but it is quite as much for the 

 larvae, to whom these nice things are carried. The particular 

 delights of ants are known to eveiybody ; every one complains 

 in the country of the constant visits of these insects, and they show 

 themselves wherever fruit can be obtained, and where there are 

 syrups and sugar. They may be seen upon flowers, the nectaries 

 of which they visit for the honey, and they are almost always 

 upon the stems of those plants which are crowded with Aphides. 

 Not that they do any harm to them, on the contrary, they rub 

 them gently with their antennae, and then the Aphides, apparently 

 pleased, cause a little drop of sugary liquid to appear at the end 

 of the small cylindrical tubes, which are situated at the extremity 

 of their bodies. This is what the ants require, and they soon sip 

 it up. The Aphides thus act as cows to the ants, and it is very 

 remarkable that as yet no one has been able to recognise the use 

 that this secretion may be to the Aphides themselves. As soon 

 as an ant discovers a spot where there is some plunder to be had, 

 bands of them will constantly come and visit the place. The ants 

 return to the nest gorged with food, and give up a portion of it, 

 which they have retained in their gullet-pouch, to those which 

 have remained at home, and especially to the larvre. Hundreds 

 of observations have proved that these industrious insects com- 

 municate with and understand each other. Frequently they 

 may be seen to stop and to touch each other with their antennae, 

 and many naturalists have thought that these appendages are 

 the special organs of a particular insect language. They may 

 be noticed singly or in numbers succouring wounded brethren, 

 and leading them to the nest, and when the inhabitants of 



