APHIDES AND ANTS. 99 



He says, " Four or five species of ants keep pucerons 

 in their abode ; but less constantly, and in much smaller 

 numbers than the yellow ant ; as they obtain a portion 

 of their subsistence from those (Aphides ?) inhabiting 

 trees. There are some who reach the branches loaded 

 with these insects, under a covered way of earth lead- 

 ing directly from their nest. Here the ants are as 

 well furnished with food as if they kept the pucerons 

 in their own dwellings. As often as they wish to 

 bring these insects to their nests, they can accomplish 

 it without the knowledge of other ants, and without 

 incurring any risk. . . ." "The turf ant . 

 which from its small size (being only half a line in 

 length) may be called the microscopic ant, finds 

 pucerons proportional to its own size. They are of a 

 white colour, and but a little larger than the ant 

 itself. Pucerons are thus the domestic animals of 

 the ants." 



Again in another place Huber says that the Ants 

 transport the Aphides to their nests, rather than the 

 Aphides come to the nests of their own accord. In- 

 deed, he thinks that the Ants make systematic searches 

 for Aphides amongst their galleries, which sometimes 

 extend to perhaps thirty or forty feet under the soil. 

 Subsequently the captives are brought into the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the nests of their captors, and located 

 under the domes of the same. Huber says, " I have 

 seldom discovered Aphides under the ground, without 

 their being surrounded by yellow ants, who arrive at 

 their haunts by the subterranean passages, and who 

 probably convey the Aphides to their nests in the 

 autumn." 



Even here wonders do not cease, for he discovered 

 that ants collect the ova of Aphides, and store them 

 with every precaution to preserve their vitality ; and 

 that on the return of spring they place them in suitable 

 conditions for hatching the young. 



It is not easy to see how the Aphis eggs can im- 

 prove in condition by all the treatment they are said 



