HEMIPTEEA. 133 



in the beginning of this branch. This tube was formed of rotten 

 wood, of the vegetable earth of this very tree, and I saw many 

 a time the ants bringing little bits in their mouths to repair the 

 breaches I had made in their pavilion. These are not very 

 common traits, and are not of the number of those which can be 

 attributed to an habitual routine."* 



One day, Pierre Huber discovered in a nest of yellow ants a 

 cell containing a mass of eggs having the appearance of ebony. 

 They were surrounded by a number of ants, which appeared to 

 be guarding them, and endeavouring to carry them off. 



Huber took possession of the cell, its inhabitants, and of the 

 little treasure it contained, and placed the whole in a box lid, 

 covered with a piece of glass, so as to be more easily observed. 

 He saw the ants approach the eggs, pass their tongues in between 

 them, depositing on them a liquid. They seemed to treat these 

 eggs exactly as they would have treated those of their own 

 species ; they felt them with their antennae, gathered them to- 

 gether, raised them frequently to their mouths, and did not leave 

 them for an instant. They took them up, and turned them over, 

 and after having examined them with care, they carried them 

 with extreme delicacy into the little earthen case placed near 

 them, f 



These were not, however, ants' eggs. They were the eggs of 

 aphides. The young which were soon to be hatched were to 

 give to the provident ants a reward for the attentions they had 

 lavished upon, them. How wonderful are the life and the habits 

 of the plant-lice, and their relations to ants ! But we should be 

 led on too far, if we were to pursue these attractive details. 



We pass on now to the history of another family namely, 

 the Gallinsecta, as Reaumur calls them, or Cocci They pass 

 the greatest part of their lives that is to say, many months 

 entirely motionless, sticking to the stalks or branches of shrubs ; 

 remaining thus as devoid of movement as the plant to which they 

 are attached. One would say that they were part and parcel of 

 it. Their form is so simple, that nothing in their exterior would 

 make one guess them to be insects. The larger they become, the 



* Traite d'Insectologie, &c., pp. 198201. 

 f Recherches, &c., pp. 205, 206. 



