xxvi INSECTA : HYMENOPTERA 411 



the colourless species which feeds on roots. The ant actively 

 collects them, and keeps them in little flocks feeding on the 

 roots near its own nest, so that it can obtain honey-dew when- 

 ever it is wanted. 1 It has also been shown that some ants 

 go even further than this, for they have been known to 

 collect, in October, the eggs of Aphides which live on the plants 

 above the ground, and to tend them as carefully as their own 

 eggs all the winter until the following spring ; then the young 

 Aphides which have hatched out are brought by them to the 

 surface, and deposited on the food plant they need, where 

 they can be visited by the ants when hungry. 



Most ants feed also on any animal matter that comes in 

 their way, such as a dead fly, and probably the Yellow Ant 

 will vary its diet in this way at times, though it seems to live 

 mainly on nectar and honey-dew. 



When feeding on anything solid, the ant first packs it into 

 a little pocket lying below the mouth (see p. 405), and here 

 all the juice possible is squeezed out of it and is swallowed, 

 for only liquid matter can pass down the very fine oesophagus 

 leading to the " crop " which is situated just beyond the 

 "pedicel" or waist. The solid residue is ejected from this 

 " infra-buccal " pocket later (cf. p. 425). 



As a rule only some of the ants go out to forage, and on 

 their return they feed the queen and the nurses who have 

 stayed in the nest to look after the eggs and larvae. It is a 

 curious sight to watch one ant feeding another. When the 



FIG. 313. Lasius flavus. (Much enlarged.) 

 One ant, A, feeding another, B. 



forager returns, a hungry ant runs up to her and begins 

 rapidly stroking her cheeks and head with her antennae as 

 if begging for food ; the forager then opens her mandibles 



1 Lubbock, Ants, Bees, and Wasps, p. 72. 



