l897-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. I25 



leoptera from the Netherlands collected by Mr. E. Seipgens. 

 Further, the Societ\\possesses for temporary use a great number 

 of indigenous Diptera, collected by Dr. de Meijere, at present 

 conservator of the entomological and ethnographical collections 

 of the Society." 



APHIDS AND COCCIDS ASSOCIATING WITH ANTS. 



An Account of Their Habits ; with Bibliographical Notes. 



By Geo. B King, Lawrence, Mass. 



Since the observations of Gould, Huber and others in their 

 time, nothing of a definite character has been given to us by 

 entomologists regarding the true habits of ants having aphids 

 and coccids associated with them in their nests. Most of the 

 writers on the subject took for granted what was said by the old 

 authors. The purpose of the present article is to attempt to show 

 that a large part of the published observations on the habits of 

 ants and coccids associating in the nests of the former is erroneous, 

 and to give results of personal observations and experiments 

 made by long and continuous study of them I supposed, like 

 all other naturalists apparently, from what I had read concerning 

 them that the ants collected the aphids and coccids for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining food for themselves during the Winter months ; 

 also that the ants went down into their burrows sufficiently far to 

 escape a freezing temperature, where they remained until the fol- 

 lowing Spring. This I believe to be the general opinion given 

 by all writers on this subject. My observations have been that 

 the ants in question do not go deep into their burrows during the 

 Winter, but remain where their nests become frozen, consequently 

 being in a torpid and inactive state until the approach of warm 

 weather. In this condition, of course, no food is required, which 

 fact precludes the acception of the hitherto adopted theory of the 

 association of ants and coccids. Some of the nests we will find 

 in which the ants are all collected together in small piles, and 

 this frequently before the ground becomes frozen, but too cold 

 for them to be active, the coverings of their nests consisting only 

 of a few sticks or stones for their shelter. The aphids and coc- 

 cids are with them in separate places under the same covering. 

 Some nests we may find in which the ants have deserted their 



