in.] FOOD DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 71 



dimensions : the little workers are also very pugnacious. 

 This differentiation of certain individuals, so as to adapt 

 them to special functions, seems to me very remarkable ; 

 for it must be remembered that the difference is not 

 one of age or sex. 



The food of ants consists of insects, great numbers of 

 which they destroy ; of honey, honeydew, and fruit ; 

 indeed, scarcely any 

 animal or sweet sub- 

 stance comes amiss to 

 them. Some species, 

 such, for instance, as 

 the small brown garden 

 ant, ascend bushes in 

 search of aphides. The 

 ant then taps the aphis 

 gently with her anten- 

 nae, and the aphis emits 

 a drop of sweet fluid, 



r FIG. 45. Aphis. 



which the ant drinks. 



Sometimes the ants even build covered ways up to 

 and over the aphides, which, moreover, they protect 

 from the attacks of other insects. Our English ants 

 do not collect provision for the winter : indeed, their 

 food is not of a nature which would admit of this. 

 Some southern species, however, collect grain, occa- 

 sionally in considerable quantities. Moreover, though 

 our English ants cannot be said exactly to lay up 

 stores, some at least do take steps to provide them- 

 selves with food in the future. The small yellow 

 meadow ant (Lasius flavus), for instance, lives princi- 

 pally on the honeydew of certain aphides which suck 

 the roots of grass. The ants collect the aphides in 



