ANTS AND GREEN BUG 31 



the following day, a new nest was found on this tree made 

 by the ants out of coffee leaves. As soon as it was com- 

 pleted, the pots were connected by a tape (see Plate III, 

 Fig. 2). The ants soon crawled over to the infested pot 

 and in about two hours the first bug was carried into the 

 nest on the uninfested plant and later on several more 

 were taken. 



From the very large number of ants found crawling 

 over every part of the infested plant, it was impossible to 

 observe whether the bugs carried over were those fixed on 

 the plant or those moving about. The former appears 

 more probable as, usually, very few bugs move about. The 

 majority of those carried into the nests were immature. 

 It is interesting to note that the particular colony 

 of ants with which the experiment was tried had, in all 

 probability, no previous experience in carrying scale insects. 

 The tree from which it was obtained had no scale insects 

 on it nor were any found in the nest from w^hich the ants 

 were taken. It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that 

 the instinct displayed here is much the same as that dis- 

 played by all ants, viz.^ that of carrying into their nests 

 food material found in the course of their explorations and 

 the scales w^ere probably carried into the nests because it 

 was found they yielded a sugary substance, the honey 

 dew. Why only a few of the many bugs on the plants 

 were carried, and why the instinct did not assert itself 

 more strongly is not clear. Green bugs marked with ink 

 and dropped into the colony W'Cre immediately thrown out. 

 Others placed in the way of ants which were on their way 

 to their nest did not attract any attention. 



Two more species of ants which have nests under 

 ground (Solenopsis geminata and Tapinoma melajwceph- 

 aluvi) were experimented with. In both the experiments 

 several bugs were carried into the nests. 



It was difficult to ascertain, in the case of these two 

 species what happened to the bugs after their transference. 

 Nevertheless the following experiments were tried. The 

 plant in the pot in which the nest was situated and into 

 which the bugs had been carried, was cut near the ground 

 level and the stump was connected by a tape to another 

 uninfested plant. The ants readily went over to this 

 plant but no bugs were carried over. This experiment 

 failing, the pot with the nest was gradually heated from 

 below^ to force the ants out. The expectation was that 



