i 3 2 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 



" There is still more; the ants have made a further 

 development quite as knowing in its way. f We lose 

 an enormous amount of time,' they said, ' in going 

 about here and there to milk our cattle, and, for busy 

 ants, time is money.' You will guess the sequel : 

 aphides established in, dwelling in, the nests of the 

 ants, where they are well taken care of, fed, fattened, 

 kept clean, petted, and so on, with the result that 

 there is always a supply of sugar at hand. Without 

 doing ourselves any injustice, can you suggest any 

 way by which we ourselves could have improved on 

 this?" 



"No, indeed. But why should they be included in 

 the order Hymenoptera, seeing that these, as you told 

 me, are characterised by the possession of four mem- 

 branous wings with large meshes ? Ants, so far as I 

 know, have no wings at all." 



"Yes, they have; but in most cases they are only 

 provided with them "for a short time at the period 

 when they are occupied with laying their eggs, and 

 even then not all of them, but only the males and 

 females." 



" Your l only ' is very strange. Are there then 

 ants that are neither male nor female? Are there 

 Auvergnats among them ? " 



" Exactly, and these Auvergnats are the most 

 interesting of all the members of the ant tribe. They 

 are the workers, and on them devolve all the house- 



