APHIDES. 69 



the jellow meadow ant, which lives almost entirely 

 below ground, has become much paler. 



The ants may be said almost literally to milk the 

 aphides ; for, as Darwin and others have shown, the 

 aphides generally retain the secretion until the ants 

 are ready to receive it. The ants stroke and caress the 

 aphides with their antennas, and the aphides then 

 emit the sweet secretion. 



As the honey of the aphides is more or less sticky, 

 it is probably an advantage to the aphis that it should 

 be removed. Nor is this the only service which ants 

 render to them. They protect them from the attacks 

 of enemies ; and not unfrequently even build cowsheds 

 of earth over them. The yellow ants collect the root- 

 feeding species in their nests, and tend them as carefully 

 as their own young. But this is not all. The ants not 

 only guard the mature aphides, which are useful ; but 

 also the eggs of the aphides, which of course, until 

 they come to maturity, are quite useless. These eggs 

 were first observed by our countryman Grould, whose 

 excellent Httle work on ants ^ has hardly received the 

 attention it deserves. In this case, however, he fell 

 into error. He states that ' the queen ant ' [he is 

 speaking oi Lasius flavus] 'lays three different sorts of 

 eggs, the slave, female, and neutral. The two first are 

 deposited in the spring, the last in July and part of 

 August ; or, if the summer be extremely favourable, 



• An Account of English Ants, by the Kev. W Gould, 1747 

 p. S6 



