THE FORMICID^^ 20/ 



platforms and beams of about the thickness of paper, and makes 

 upright partitions of the same dehcacy, and these include and 

 partition off rooms and cells, the number of which may be really 

 said to be immense. In some places they make little columns 

 instead of the partitions, which give a miniature palatial aspect 

 to the excavation. Other ants settle down inside the beams 

 of houses, and interfere with the safety of large buildings in 

 consequence of their very intelligent and destructively exca- 

 vating habits. All these different species, which have such 

 diverse constructive instincts, appear to take care of their larvae 

 in very much the same way ; but there is one kind, Formica 

 sanguinea^ which is of an iron-red colour, that settles down 

 in the nests of other species, especially in those of the brown 

 alid mining ants, and singularly enough it attacks these kinds 

 in order to carry away their nymphs, so as to make slaves of them. 

 This is an extraordinary fact, but there are other examples of the 

 same kind, which we shall notice presently. We have already 

 mentioned the curious use that some ants make of the Aphides. 

 The red ants visit the plants which are covered by them, 

 but they do not hesitate to look after cochineal insects, scale 

 insects, and several Hcniiptcra ; moreover, in those parts of the 

 world where there are no ApJndes or scale insects these ants seek 

 the CicadcUce. But under certain circumstances the ants do not 

 care about passing good food in order to enjoy the tiny drops of 

 aphis liquor, so in order to save time they bring the authors of 

 these little luxuries into the immediate neighbourhood of their 

 nests, and sometimes carry them inside. This is peculiarly 

 the case amongst the ants which lead very sedentary lives, and 

 they select those Aphides which live upon grass and roots. 

 Such species of the genus Formica are always very attentive 

 to the captive Aphides, which they collect together in con- 

 siderable flocks. Hubcr says that an ant's nest is all the 

 richer according to the number of its captives ; these are the 

 cattle, the cows, and the goats of the ant tribe. Besides these 

 objects of care, many little insects live with the ants, and 

 receive very good treatment from them. Some of them will be 

 noticed in the next chapter, so it must suffice at present to state 

 that the young of the beetles of the genus Clavigcra have 



