JWIIiCH-COWS Of THE AfiTS. 



WHILE much has been written upon the social rela- 

 tions subsisting between ants and aphides, yet the 

 subject never grows uninteresting or threadbare. New facts 

 are brought to light as observations widen and extend, some 

 tending to confirm, and others to subvert old notions. 



That aphides excrete a sweet, viscid, honey-like fluid, 

 which affords food for many species of ants, has been long 

 known to naturalists. Any one can convince himself of this 

 truth if he will but put himself to the trouble of examining 

 the leaves or branchlets of any plant at the proper season of the 

 year. Scattered upon the foliage and tender twigs thereof will 

 be found millions of aphides, and close beside them countless 

 ants, that ever and anon will be seen to caress, by means of 

 their antennae, the little creatures for the sweets within their 

 bodies. It has even been asserted that some species of ants 

 keep aphides as human beings do cows, but this by the 

 many has been doubted, or deemed imaginary. 



When a young man the writer was disposed to drift with 

 the popular opinion in this particular, but a few facts that 

 fell under his notice whilst searching for carabi and other 

 beetles that live under stones and decayed logs, changed the 

 bias of his mind and established in him the idea that with 

 one species of ant this was at least the case. 



It was on an occasion while exploring a neighboring 

 thicket for the objects of his search, that he discovered, 

 underneath a large flat stone which he had raised, a nest of 

 a small red ant, which he took to be the Lasius flavus of the 

 books. The ground was covered all over with pits, and 



