256 CONSIDERATIONS FROM STUDY OF INSECTS 



by the aphids, or plant lice. Some species of ants provide elaborate 

 stables for the aphids, commonly called ants' cows, supplying with food 



and shelter and taking the honeydew 

 as their reward. This they obtain by 

 licking it from the body of the aphids. 

 A Western form of ant, found in New 

 Mexico and Arizona, rears a scale in- 

 sect on the roots of the cactus for this 



Food 



Diagram of an artificial ants' nest : 

 S, moistened sponge. (After Miss 

 Fielde.)i 



same purpose. 



It is probable 

 of ants are 

 among the 

 most warlike 

 of any in- 



that some species 



sects. In the case of the robber ants, which 

 live entirely by war and pillage, the workers 

 have become modified in structure, and can no 

 longer work, but only fight. Some species go 

 further and make slaves of the ants preyed 

 upon. These slaves do all the work for their 

 captors, even to making additions to their nest 

 and acting as nurses to their young. 



The entire communal life of the ants seems 

 to be based upon the perception of odor. If 

 an ant of the same species but from a different 



Ants and their " cows, 

 aphids. 



1 A successful nest for the schoolroom is made and described by Miss Adele M. 

 Fielde. See the Biological Bulletin, Vol. VII, No. 4, September, 1904. 



The floor of the nest is a pane of window glass six by ten inches. Build a wall 

 by cementing with crockery cement four half-inch strips of thicker glass, and upon 

 these cement four more strips, making the wall at least one quarter of an inch high. 

 The space inside is divided by one or two partitions built the same as the outer wall. 

 Spaces should be allowed for communication between chambsrs. The whole outer 

 surface of the nest thus made may be covered with black paper to make it opaque. 

 A lining of Turkish toweling is glued to the top of the wall. The cover, which rests 

 on the toweling, should be either of glass made opaque, or better, of glass (such 

 as ruby glass of dark rooms) that will exclude most of the ultra-violet light rays. 

 It is best to provide a separate roof for each chamber. Ants need moisture, so that 

 a small bit of moist sponge should be kept in the room where the ants live. The 

 food chamber, where bits of cake, banana, apple, or other food mixed with honey 

 or molasses, are placed, should also be kept moist. 



To stock such a nest, dig up a small colony and transfer them, along with some 

 earth, to the schoolroom. To separate the ants from the earth, place them with the 

 earth on a little island of wood in a basin of water. On one side of the island place 

 a glass plate, and shade this plate by a piece of opaque paper raised slightly above 

 the glass. The ants soon remove themselves and their young to the dark area, 

 and may then be transferred to the nest. Ant colonies have been kept for three 

 or four years in such a nest. 



