Ants. 27 



examining daisy-plants from outside, I found on 

 many of them similar aphides, and more or less of 

 the same eggs. 



9. Our ants, then, though they may not perhaps 

 lay up food for the winter, do more, for they keep 

 during six months the eggs which will enable them 

 to procure food during the following summer a 

 case of prudence unexampled in the animal 

 kingdom. 



The nests of our Common Yellow Ant contain 

 in abundance four or five species of aphis, more 

 than one of which appears to be as yet undescribed. 

 In addition, however, to the insects belonging to 

 this family, there are a large number of others 

 which live habitually in ants' nests, so that we 

 may truly say that our English ants possess a much 

 greater variety of domestic animals than we do 

 ourselves. Large nests of the Horse Ant some- 

 times contain at least a thousand of such guests ; 

 and I believe that the aphides in a nest of the 

 little yellow ant would often be much more nume- 

 rous. We now know of no less than 584 species of 

 insects, which are habitually found in association 

 with ants, and of which 542 are beetles. 



10. The association of some of these insects with 

 ants may be purely accidental and without signifi- 

 cance. In some of them no doubt the bond of 

 union is merely the selection of similar places of 

 abode ; in some few others the ants are victimized 

 by parasites of which they cannot rid themselves. 



