ON INSECTS. 59 



Ants are another class of insects whose opera- 

 tions are curious and wonderful. For instance, 

 there is a small red ant in the West Indies which 

 conceals itself in covered ways, and attacks and 

 feeds on the hardest woods, never appearing on 

 the bark, or even touching it. Thus, when a 

 tree or a beam of a house appears perfectly 

 sound, it has been, perhaps, eaten out, and 

 nothing but a shell remains. 



Some of our English ants will ascend a poplar 

 or a lime-tree, where they find, on the tender 

 shoots of the tree, a small green insect called an 

 aphis. You may ask, " Do they eat these in- 

 sects?" Quite the contrary. The ants, as I 

 have often seen them do, tickle them with their 

 antennae, or little feelers, which project from 

 their heads. This seems to please the aphides, 

 who discharge a sweet substance from their 

 bodies, called honey-dew, on which the ants 

 feed. They may be called the milch-cows of 

 the ants. 



In a fine morning, ants disperse themselves in 

 various directions and to considerable distances 

 from their usual abodes in search of food. When 

 they have discovered any, they make their com- 

 panions acquainted with it by means of their an- 



