WITH THE PUCERONS. 221 
-where I saw the ants obtain from them 
their food in the same mannere We can 
only compare the movements of ants 
upon this occasion, to the play of the 
fingers in a shake upon the piano-forte. 
The kermes, like the pucerons, eject this 
fluid to a distance when the ants are not 
present to receive it; this, however, but 
rarely happens. ‘The gall insects of the 
vine, the peach, and the mulberry-tree, 
never failed presenting me with the same 
spectacle; which gave me some general 
ideas respecting the relation which exists 
between the instinct of these insects and 
that of ants. That the pucerons and the 
gall insects experience pleasure, when 
caressed in this way by the ants; that it 
is an advantage to them to be earlier rid 
of their secretions; or that there really 
exists between each, some kind of lJan- 
guage, is still one of those questions 
upon which we cannot well decide: but 
we shall not the less admire the manner 
-in which ants procure their subsistence. 
This fluid is to them an inexhaustible 
L3 
