144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of the root-lice, in the immediate vicinity of their flocks and 

 herds, but are obliged, like larger owners of stock in outlying 

 pastures, to make frequent visits to their proteges, and as from 

 their exposed situation these are liable to the attack of enemies 

 unknown to the subterraneans, their protectors maintain a con- 

 stant watch, both by day and night, relieved with great regu- 

 larity. Their duties are to remove the cast-off skins of their 

 charge, and to drive away any marauder. It is a task of some 

 difficulty, in many cases, to prevent the active and wily ichneu- 

 mon-parasites from inserting their eggs in the bodies of the lice, 

 and even the winged advantages of the former scarcely enable 

 her to come off without the loss of a leg, left in the jaws of the 

 enraged ant, while the lady-bird, the syrphus-fly, and the lace- 

 wing are obliged to deposit their eggs at some little distance 

 from the colony to avoid awakening suspicion, and trust to 

 Providence for the safety of their future young. The latter 

 insect, for the better preservation of her eggs, deposits each 

 upon a slender stem of stiff and elastic silk, spun frOin her abdo- 

 men, of such a length that the ants cannot reach it, and so fine 

 that they can neither cut it with ther powerful jaws, nor climb it. 



How often, in passing a solitary hickory tree in the month of 

 June, do we hear a buzzing as of hundreds of bees among its 

 branches, and on looking up discover them, with wasps and 

 flies without number, continually hovering and alighting and 

 starting back from the green leaves, where no blossom or other 

 supposable attraction is visible ? Closer examination will dis- 

 cover myriads of minute plant-lice constantly ejecting the sweet 

 honey-dew in such quantity as to stain and render the leaves 

 absolutely filthy'with this excretion. Ants innumerable, stream- 

 ing up and down the trunk, and covering the leaves, now strok- 

 ing the backs of their little purveyors, and now rushing valiantly 

 forward to the great discomfiture of some eager wasp, who 

 hoped to make a delicious repast on the abundant sweets, and 

 had not the slightest intention of injuring the feeble aphides. 

 This tree, after nightfall, becomes a centre of attraction to 

 various moths or night butterflies, and furnishes a " rich col- 

 lecting ground " to the entomologist, who, armed with his net, 

 attached to a stout pole, jars from its boughs a shower of deli- 

 cate creatures of various plumage, and captures them for future 

 study. The leaves, on trees and other plants attacked by the 



