HONEY-DEW. 75 



tion of the whole family ; for pressing as they do 

 upon one another, they would otherwise soon be 

 glued together, and rendered incapable of stirring. 

 " When the ants are at hand, watching the moment 

 at which the aphides emit their fluid, they seize 

 and suck it down immediately: this however is 

 the least of their talents ; for the ants absolutely 

 possess the art of making the aphides yield it at 

 their pleasure ; or in other words of milking them." 

 The ant ascends the tree, says Linnaeus, that it 

 may milk its cows the aphides, not kill them. 

 Huber informs us that the liquor is voluntarily 

 given out by the aphis, when solicited by the ant, 

 the latter tapping the aphis gently, but repeatedly 

 with its antennae, and using the same motions as 

 when caressing its own young. He thinks, when 

 the ants are not at hand to receive it, that the 

 aphis retains the liquor for a longer time, and 

 yields it freely and apparently without the least 

 detriment to itself, for even when it has acquired 

 wings, it shows -no disposition to escape. A single 

 aphis supplies many ants with a plentiful meal. 

 The ants occasionally form an establishment for 

 their aphides, constructing a building in a secure 

 place, at a distance from their own city, to which, 

 after fortifying it, they transport those insects, and 

 confine them under a guard, like cows upon a 

 dairy farm, to supply the wants of the metropolis. 

 The aphides are provided with a hollow pointed 

 E 2 



