CARE BY ANTS OF EGGS OF APHIDES. 115 



up, turned them, and after having surveyed them 

 with affectionate regard, conveyed them with extreme 

 tenderness to the little chamber of earth I had placed 

 at their disposal. They were not, however, the eggs 

 of ants; we know that these are extremely white, be- 

 coming transparent as they increase in age, but never 

 acquire a colour essentially different. I was, for a 

 long time, unacquainted ^ jth the origin of those of 

 which I have just spoken, and by chance discovered 

 they contained little aphides; but it wab not these in- 

 dividual eggs I saw them quit; it was other eggs 

 which were a little larger, found in the nests of yellow 

 ants, and of a particular species. On opening an ant- 

 hill, 1 discovered several chambers containing a great 

 number of brown eggs, of which the ants were ex- 

 tremely jealous, carrying them with the utmost expe- 

 dition to the bottom of the nest, disputing and con- 

 tending for them with a zeal which left me no doubt 

 of the strong attachment with which they regard 

 them. 



* Desirous of conciliating their interests, as well as 

 my own, I took the ants and their treasure, and placed 

 them in such a manner that I might easily observe 

 them. These eggs were never abandoned. The ants 

 took the same care of them as the former. The fol- 

 lowing day I saw one of these eggs open, and an 

 aphis fully formed, having a large trunk, quit it. I 

 knew it to be a puceron of the oak: the others were 

 disclosed a few days after, and the greater number in 

 my presence. They set immediately about sucking 

 the juice from some branches of the tree I gave them, 

 and the ants now found, within their reach, a recom- 

 pense for their care and attention. The.ant-hill whence 

 these eggs had been taken was situated at the foot of 

 an oak, which readily accounts for their existence in 

 that place. I discovered them in the spring; the pu- 

 cerons which quitted them were very large for insects 



