ROADSIDE LIFE. 



277 



There are many forms of ants* nests, but each 

 species builds the same sort. Sometimes the nest is 

 a simple tunnel in the earth, sometimes a large mound 

 with tunnels and galleries extending many feet under 

 ground, and some species live in decayed trees. In 

 the tropics a greater variety of these structures occur 

 than in our country. Some colonies own several 

 mounds. One calony of one species has been known 

 to have two hundred mounds, covering several hun- 

 dred square yards. Ants are also very good road- 

 makers, sometimes making clean, beaten paths, and 

 sometimes working out covered ways under rubbish. 



As to their food, ants are general feeders, eating 

 animal food and also sweet substances, like the juice 

 of fruit and sugar ; and they are also very fond of 

 the honey-dew given off by aphids, and the ants re- 

 gard these aphids as their milch-cows. An ant will 

 walk up to an aphid and stroke its back with its 

 antennas, and immediately the pleased aphid gives 

 forth a drop of sweet fluid, which the ant at once 

 drinks up. The ants take very good care of their 

 cattle, and will carry them to new pastures if the old 

 ones dry up. They also carry the aphid-eggs into 

 their nests, and keep them sheltered during the win- 

 ter, and then carry the young plant-lice out and put 

 them on plants in the spring. When ants are seen 

 going up and down the trunks of trees it is safe to 

 suppose they are attending aphids. They also care 

 similarly for some other honey-giving insects, as cer- 

 tain bark-lice {Coccidce) and tree-hoppers {Membracidce). 



The Habits of Ants (Field Work). — Make a col- 

 lection of ants representing as many species as practi- 

 cable. Give each species a number, and make notes 



