1895 THE MICROSCOPE. 35 



I pulled up a large thistle that grew on an ant hill and 

 found a whole colony of Aphides. I shook down some 

 dozen of them among the ants. No sooner were the ants 

 aware of the presence of the Aphides than they began to 

 fondle them with their legs, sometimes positively taking 

 them around the neck, to tap them on the back with 

 their antennae and to lick them with their tongues. The 

 ants then took hold of them with their jaws and lifted 

 them from the ground and carried them with the great- 

 est care, one by one, into the recesses of the nest. I have 

 often watched an ant go from one Aphis to another, 

 stand behind each, and gently squeeze the body with its 

 forelegs. Perhaps one Aphis in ten would give out a 

 drop of honey, which the ant immediately swallows. 

 The ants take much more care of the Aphides than the 

 Aphides do of themselves. It is very pretty to see the 

 licking and washing and cleaning and caressing which 

 the ant constantly bestows upon them." 



The Aphis lives on the juices of the plants which it 

 inhabits. It is provided with a tubular proboscis (Fig. 

 4) for sucking these juices, and when this is not in use 

 it is carried under the breast (Fig. 2, k ), where it is seen 

 with difficulty unless the insect be held in the stage for- 

 ceps. The Aphides multiply very rapidly, the wingless 

 insect (Fig. 2) producing young like herself, only 

 smaller, and as many as fourteen in a day. The life of 

 an insect is from two to three weeks, and it is said that 

 a single Aphis and her descendants can produce as many 

 as 23,740,000 in a single summer. Towards the end of 

 summer the true winged males (Fig. 1) and females ap- 

 pear and lay eggs which hatch the following spring, 

 thus perpetuating the species. 



These insects are often jdestroyed by fumigation wdth 

 tobacco, but nothing is more effectual than their natural 

 enemies, the lady-birds. Not only do the adults feed 

 on them, but the mother insect lays her eggs in packets 



