THE WINTER BY ANTS. 



The statements of Huber, though confirmed by 

 Schmarda, have not, indeed, attracted so much notice 

 as many of the other interesting facts which they have 

 recorded ; because if aphides are kept by ants in their 

 nests, it seems only natural that their eggs should 

 also occur. The above case, however, is much more 

 remarkable. Here are aphides, not living in the ants' 

 nests, but outside, on the leaf-stalks of plants. The 

 eggs are laid early in October on the food-plant of 

 the insect. They are of no direct use to the ants, 

 yet they are not left where they are laid, exposed to the 

 severity of the weather and to innumerable dangers, 

 but brought into their nests by the ants, and tended 

 by them with the utmost care through the long winter 

 months until the following March, when the young ones 

 are brought out and again placed on the young shoots of 

 the daisy. This seems to me a most remarkable case 

 of prudence. Our ants may not perhaps lay up food 

 f< >r t he winter ; but they do more, for they keep during 

 six months the eggs which will enable them to procure 

 food during the following summer, a case of prudence 

 unexampled in the animal kingdom. 



The nests of our common yellow ant (Laaius flavus) 

 contain in abundance four or five species of aphis, 

 more than one of which appears to be as yet undescribed. 

 In addition, however, to the insects belonging to this 

 family, there are a large number of others which live 

 ually in ants' nests, so that we may truly say that 

 our English ants possess a much greater variety of 



