Ants and Aphids 



365 



concerts the attacking party to such an 

 extent that the aphis has a chance to 

 make its escape. 



The manna of BibHcal tradition is 

 now known to be the honey dew of a 

 species of coccid, or mealy bug {Gos- 

 syparia mannijera) , which lives on the 

 tamarisk. It is still eaten by the 

 Arabs, who call it "man." 



HISTORV TOLD IN AMBER 



It is found that the same relations 

 existed between the ants and aphids in 

 prehistoric times as now. Blocks of 

 amber which are perhaps 2,000,000 

 years old sometimes contain the ant and 

 aphis together, and with other evidences 

 make it sure that then as now, the ant 

 depended largely on the aphis for food. 

 At present, seventeen species, including 

 nine genera of aphids, have been ob- 

 served being "milked" by ants. 



Since the ants derive an easily ob- 

 tained and close at hand supply of 

 nutritious food from the aphids, it is 

 but fair that they should render equal 

 if not similar services to their allies. 

 And that the relationship is mutualistic 

 is made evident in many ways. 



The ants protect the aphids in every 

 way possible; they fight their enemies; 

 they build tents to protect them; they 

 carry them away to a place of safety in 

 times of danger; they take the eggs to 

 their own nest for the winter, see that 

 they receive careful attention and are 

 hatched at the proper time; place the 

 newly hatched food purveyors where 

 they can get an abundance of good 

 succulent leaves and take them back to 



the nest in case of sudden cold weather, 

 and at all times see that nothing is 

 lacking for the comfort of their 

 charges. 



The aphids never try to escape, but 

 on the contrary the females, when they 

 desire to lay their eggs, often wait until 

 found by ants who clip their wings 

 (their exact reason for doing this being 

 uncertain) , and carry them into under- 

 ground chambers, where the eggs are 

 laid by the aphis and taken in charge 

 by the ants. 



The ants always stroke the aphids in 

 the same peculiar manner and know 

 just where to expect the liquid. The 

 unusual care which the aphids are given 

 often makes it possible for them to 

 produce as many as sixteen generations 

 during a summer, ten of which may be 

 under the care of the ants simultane- 

 ously. 



How the ants have come to handle 

 the aphids in this manner has long been 

 a baffling problem. Prestmiably the 

 behavior is instinctive, but how did it 

 arise? It has often been suggested 

 that it is the result of habit which be- 

 comes hereditary — that is, an example 

 of the inheritance of acquired characters. 

 But most of the ants which show this 

 specialized behavior are workers, sex- 

 ually imperfect females who never 

 leave any offspring. It is, therefore, 

 quite impossible that they should trans- 

 mit their training to offspring which 

 they do not have. On the whole, no 

 satisfactory explanation has been sug- 

 gested to account for the origin and 

 inheritance of the ants' habits. 



New Egg Records in New South Wales 



Egg-laying records are improving 

 each year in the New South Wales 

 competitions, the fifteenth of which 

 closed this spring. A pen of six White 

 Leghorns set a new mark by laying 

 2,647 eggs in two years, of which 1,231 

 were laid in the second year. The best 

 individual record of a hen was 312 eggs 

 in 365 days by a Black Orpington. 

 This is much less significant, for the 

 progress of the poultry industry, than 



the averages. There were 420 pullets 

 of all breeds, which laid an average of 

 206 eggs each, in their first year. This 

 achievement was largely due to the 

 excellent care the birds received, but 

 fundamentally to the fact that they 

 came frcm selected stock. It shows 

 that the egg-production of a country 

 which has advanced far, by present 

 standards, might yet be doubled if the 

 most scientific methods were employed. 



