SUMMER INDUSTRIES 131 



it must be remembered that ants and termites are remark- 

 able for their friendly associations with other insects, which 

 they tolerate in their nests, sometimes as useful inmates, 

 oftener apparently just as pets. 



What we have just referred to recalls what Edward 

 Jacobson has recently reported regarding a mosquito which 

 seems to milk ants ! For that is what it comes to. The 

 mosquito frequents certain trees in Java, on which the ants in 

 question (Cremastogaster diformis) go to and fro. It hails a 

 passing ant and strokes the head with quick movements 

 of its forelegs and antennae, probably tickling, perhaps 

 massaging, the ant. In any case, the ant emits a drop of 

 juice, which the mosquito, sucks up. Then the ant goes on 

 its way, a pathetic instance of naturally good abilities, spoilt 

 by an exaggerated state-socialism. The gentle mosquito 

 has been named Harpagomyia splendens by de Meijere, who 

 points out that the creature cannot bite ! Jacobson found 

 two other Diptera in Java which seem also to have learned 

 how to tap ants. Like the mosquito, they have discovered a 

 deep wisdom in the old advice " Go to the ant, thou 

 sluggard/' 



Agricultural industries are again illustrated among the 

 ants. The harvesting of grain, believed in from ancient 

 days, but challenged by careful entomologists such as 

 Latreille, Huber, and Kirkby, has been satisfactorily de- 

 scribed by Moggridge and others. In his Agricultural Ant 

 of fexas, M'Cook gave an account of the abundant red- 

 bearded ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus), which weeds out cir- 

 cular discs in open ground, tolerating only the needle-grass 

 (Aristida), whose seeds are gathered and stored along with 

 others in underground granaries. " Not a plant is allowed 

 to intrude upon the formicary bounds ; and, although often 

 seen, it was an interesting sight, after pushing through the 

 high weeds, to come upon one of these nests, and observe the 



