232 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



caressing their cattle and then sipping the sweets that flow in response. 

 With some ants this association with the aphicls seems more or less acci- 

 dental, but with others it is evidently intentional. They build regular 

 roads to the trees on which the plant-lice feed, or in other instances they 

 keep the aphids in their nests, where they can suck the juices of the roots 

 of plants. Still farther, they care for the young and the eggs of the plant- 

 lice with as much solicitude as for their own^ and this not only with the 

 forms living in the nests, but with those which live outside on trees and 

 shrubs. Were the eggs left where they were laid, they would be exposed 

 to numberless dangers, so the ants carry them to their subterranean bur- 

 rows and there care for them during the winter, and then when the spring 

 comes, the young are carefully taken out and placed upon the plant best 

 adapted to their needs. 



With some of the animals kept in the nests of ants the problem is more 

 difficult. They secrete no honey-dew, they do not guard the colony, and 

 what part they play is not easily seen. Mr. Lubbock has hazarded the 

 suggestion that they may be the pets of the ants, taking, among these 

 intelligent insects, the place of our cats and dogs. 



The subjects of recognition and communication among ants are also 

 imperfectly known. Ants, without doubt, are able to recognize the 

 members of their own colony, not only readily distinguishing them from 

 those belonging to other nests, but even from other individuals from the 

 same nest. How they do it we don't know, and all attempted explana- 

 tions are but guesses. Ants are also able to tell their fellows of certain 

 things. Thus when one finds a choice object, too large for her to carry 

 alone, she quickly returns to the nest and marches out with several asso- 

 ciates to aid her. This much is a matter of common observation, but Mr. 

 Lubbock wished to ascertain if more than the fact that such objects existed 

 was communicated, and to this end he made many very careful experi- 

 ments, almost all of which had negative results. It even appeared that 

 the ant could not even tell her associates the way to the treasure. 



Closely connected with these two subjects is that of intelligence, and 

 it is placed beyond a doubt that the ants really possess considerable intel- 

 ligence and reasoning powers of no mean order, although this side of their 

 life has often been exaggerated. When we once begin to tell the marvel- 

 lous stories of the habits of ants, there is no knowing where to stop. We 

 have the best of evidence that they perform many wonderful feats which 

 would imply that they reasoned out exactly the proper course to pursue, 

 and yet when ants in confinement are tested by closely similar conditions, 

 they frequently fail lamentably. 



The number of species of ants considerably exceeds one thousand, and 



