88 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



sweetness, issues in limpid drops from the abdomen of 

 these insects, not only by the ordinary passage, but also 

 by two setiform tubes placed, one on each side, just 

 above it. Tlieir sucker being inserted in the tender 

 bark, is without intermission employed in absorbing 

 the sap, w hich, after it has passed through the system, 

 they keep continually discharging by these organs. 

 When no ants attend them, by a certain jerk of the 

 body, which takes place at regular intervals, they eja- 

 culate it to a distance • but when the ants are at hand, 

 watching the moment when the aphides emit their 

 fluid, they seize and suck it down immediately. This, 

 however, is the least of their talents ; for they abso- 

 lutely possess the art of making them yield it at their 

 pleasure ; or, in other words, of milking them. On 

 this occasion their antennae are their fingers ; with 

 these they pat the abdomen of the aphis on each side 

 alternately, moving them very briskly; a little drop of 

 fluid immediately appears, which the ant takes into its 

 mouth, one species (il/?/r/«/f«r?/Z>ra) conducting it with 

 its antennae, which are somewhat swelled at the end. 

 When it has thus milked one, it proceeds to another, 

 and so on, till being satiated it returns to the nest. 



Not only the aphides yield this repast to the ants, 

 but also the Cocci, with whom they have recourse to 

 similar mancEUvres, and with equal success ; only in 

 this case the movement of the antennas over their body 

 may be compared to the thrill of the finger over the 

 keys of a piano-forte. 



But you are not arrived at the most singular part of 

 this history, — that ants make a iiroperti/ of these cows, 

 for the po. session of which they contend with great 



