62 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



amount of metliod shown by the ants in farming their 

 aphides. He says : — 



When my eggs hatched I naturally thought that the aphides 

 belonged to one of the species usually found on the roots of 

 plants in the nests of Lasius jiavus. To my surprise, however, 

 the young creatures made the best of their way out of the nest, 

 and, indeed, were sometimes brought out by the ants them- 

 selves. In vain I tried them with roots of grass, <fec. ; they 

 ■wandered uneasily about, and eventually died. Moreover, they 

 did not in any way resemble the subterranean species. In 1878 

 I again attempted to rear these young aphides ; but though I 

 hatched a great many eggs, I did not succeed. This year, how- 

 ever, I have been more fortunate. The eggs commenced ta 

 hatch the first week in March. Near one of my nests of Lasius 

 flavus, in which I had placed some of the eggs in question, was 

 a glass containing living specimens of several species of plants 

 commonly found on or around ants' nests. To this some of 

 the young aphides were brought by the ants. Shortly after- 

 wards I observed on a plant of daisy, in the axils of the leaves, 

 some small aphides, very much resembhng those from my nest, 

 though we had not actually traced them continuously. They 

 seemed thriving, and remained stationary on the daisy. More- 

 over, whether they had sprung from the black eggs or not, the 

 ants evidently valued them, for they built up a wall of earth 

 round and over them. So things remained throughout the 

 summer, but on October 9 I found that the aphides had laid 

 some eggs exactly resembling those found in the ants' nests ; 

 and on examining daisy plants from outside, I found on many 

 of them similar aphides, and more or less of the same eggs. 



I confess these observations surprised me very much. The 

 statements of Huber have not, indeed, attracted so much notice 

 as many of the other interesting facts which he has 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 in- 

 sect. They are of no direct use to the ants, yet they are not 

 left where they are laid, where they would be 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 ut- 

 most care through the long winter months until the following 

 March, when the young ones are brought out and again placed 



