170 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



ants sometimes build "sheds" over the lice for their 

 protection and sometimes take the lice into their own 

 nests to care for them. In the case of the corn-root louse 

 the ants collect the eggs of the aphid in the fall, carry 

 them into their own nests, and care for them all winter. 

 In the spring, the newly-hatched aphids are carried out 

 by the ants and placed in burrows dug beforehand among 

 the roots of certain early food-plants. Later, the ants 

 excavate burrows along the roots of the corn and transfer 

 the aphids to these plants. 



It is interesting to watch the ants collecting the honey- 

 dew from the aphids. An ant approaches a louse and 

 gently stroking the latter with its antennae, the aphid 

 exudes a drop of the sweet material which is quickly 

 gathered up by the ant. This action may be repeated with 

 three or four of the aphids until the ant has all it desires, 

 when it hurries down the stem of the plant and away to 

 its nest with its load of sweet provender. 



THE LIFE HISTORY OF ANTS 



Enough observations have now been made to enable 

 us to say that most, if not all, colonies of ants are started 

 by a solitary queen or occasionally by two queens working 

 together. The queen, after the swarming period, alights, 

 tears off her wings, and digs a burrow in the soil or in 

 decayed wood, forms a small chamber, and then closes 

 the opening. Here she remains until her eggs are laid, 

 and have hatched into small larvae that finally mature 

 into normal but diminutive workers. All this time the 

 queen has taken no food, but has lived and fed her brood 

 on the reserve material in her bodv. The small workers 



