m) PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



theui ill its rtiouth with the utmost tenderness, and 

 giving them the advantage of the sun. This last fact 

 I state from my own observation ; for once upon open- 

 ing one of these ant-hills early in the spring, on a sunny 

 day, I observed a parcel of these eggs, which I knew 

 by their black colour, very near the surface of the nest. 

 My attack put the ants into a great ferment, and they 

 immediately began to carry these interesting objects 

 down into the interior of the nest. It is of great con- 

 sequence to them to forward the hatching of these eggs 

 as much as possible, in order to ensure an early source 

 of food for their colony; and they had doubtless in this 

 instance brought them up to the warmest part of their 

 dwelling with this view. M. Huber, in a nest of the 

 same ant, at the foot of an oak, once found the eggs of 

 Aphis Qiiercds, L. 



Our yellow ants are equally careful of their Apliides 

 after they are hatched, when their nest is disturbed 

 conveying them into the interior, lighting fiercely for 

 them if the inhabitants of neighbouring formicaries, 

 as is sometimes the case, attempt to make them their 

 prey ; and carrying them about in their mouths to 

 change their pasture, or for some other purpose. When 

 you consider that from tliem they receive almost the 

 whole nutriment botli of themselves and larvae, you 

 will not Avonder at their anxiety about them, since the 

 wealth and prosperity of the conniiunity is in propor- 

 tion to the number of their cattle. Several other spe- 

 cies keep Aphides in their nests, but none in such num- 

 bers as those of which I am speaking^. 



' See Huber, chap. vi. I have found Aphides in the nest of Myrmica 

 rtthra. Boisier dc Sauvas;es speaks of ants keeping their own Aphides, 

 and gives un interesting account of them. Journ, rfe I'/ii/siquCf \. 105. 



