THE ANTS. 381 



creatures, we must assume that it is in some way necessary to the smaller species. The Turf Ant 

 (Formica flava) is often found occupying one side of its hillock, with a colony of another Myrmicine 

 Ant (Myrmica scabrinodis) comfortably established on the other ; and other species have been 

 met with residing in strange nests, although they are known to form independent colonies. 



A still more curious form of association is that in which certain species of Ants keep the 

 workers of other species to act as their slaves. The Warrior Ant (Formica sanguinea), a species 

 not uncommon in some parts of England, is one of these, keeping workers of Formica fusca, F. 

 ctmicularia, and F. flava in its nest; but in this case "the institution" appears to be needless, 

 as the workers of F. sanguinea take their share in the labours of the community. In this, as in the 

 other cases of the same kind, the slave-making Ants make a descent, after the old robber fashion, 

 upon the societies of the species whose services they are in the habit of usurping, and cany off 

 the larvse and pupse to their own nest. The workers produced from these set to work to perform 

 the necessary duties of their new home, just as if it was their proper dwelling-place. With the 

 Amazon Ants, indeed, the imported workers have more to do than they would have had in their 

 own community, for the Amazons are so lazy that they will not even feed themselves, and would 

 perish of starvation if they were not fed by these imported workers. 



Besides these stranger Ants, other insects are found in the nests of many species, the presence 

 of which is not easily accounted for. The larva of the Rose Beetle (Cetonia aurata) is found in 

 the nests of the Wood Ant, where it is said to feed on the rotting fragments of wood forming 

 the lowest part of the nest. Species of the Coleopterous genus Hister and Brachelytrous Beetles 

 are met with in Ants' nests, and many of the latter have never been found elsewhere. Several 

 Beetles of the curious family Paussidse have been found in Ants' nests, and, from the circumstances, 

 it would seem that this is their natural habitat. In Europe a great number of the rai-est Beetles 

 are also inhabitants of these nests. According to Dr. Taschenberg, more than 300 species of true 

 Ants'-nest insects, chiefly Beetles, are known in Germany, and of these, 150 are found with the 

 Jet Ant, and 100 with the Wood Ant. 



We have already alluded to the fondness of Ants for the sweet fluids excreted by the Aphides 

 from the so-called honey-tubes which project from the sides of the hinder part of their abdomen. In. 

 search of these insects, the Ants roam over every part of the trees and plants infested by them, and, 

 not content with imbibing the nectar spontaneously exuded, stroke the Aphides with their antennae, 

 lick them with their tongues, and coax them in every way to furnish a further supply. Hence the 

 Aphides have been denominated the milch-cows of the Ants ; and, as if to make the comparison more 

 complete, the latter frequently set up a right to exclusive property over the Aphides in their neigh- 

 bourhood. Sometimes this is done simply by making a convenient covered way leading from the nest 

 to the pasture where the Plant-lice are feeding. Sometimes the Ants build a wall, or even a roof, 

 for the protection of their diminutive flock ; and, still more frequently, they carry off a number of 

 Plant-lice, and keep them in their subterranean nests, whei'e they feed by sucking the juices from the 

 roots of grasses and other plants in the neighbourhood of the nest. 



It will be easily understood that to carry on all these operations for the general weal a considerable 

 amount of organisation is requisite, and this can hardly be attained without some means of communi- 

 cation between the different members of an extensive community which have to work together for a 

 common end. The doings of the Ants sufficiently prove that they possess some means of conveying 

 intelligence to one another, and, so far as can be made out, while mere pulling and pushing serve for 

 some rough purposes, the finer and more particular communications are made by the agency of the 

 antenna?. These organs seem to come into play in almost all circumstances of Ant life ; and all writers 

 upon these insects, from the days of Huber downwards, have devoted much of their attention to this 

 most interesting subject. To enter upon it here, however, would lead us into details, for which space 

 is wanting ; and we would particularly refer the reader who wishes for more information to the 

 admirable papers by Sir John Lubbock, published in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. The 

 antennal language, whatever may be its nature, would appear, however, not to be the sole means of 

 communication possessed by Ants. Dr. Landois has been induced, by the consideration of the fact 

 that the Spider Ants (Mutillce) have the means of producing sounds by the grating of the edge of one 

 abdominal segment over a finely striated portion of the succeeding one, to examine some species of 



