The Cows that Ants Mh.k 17 



datioii. TIk- aj^his wants to ^et rid of a trouble- 

 soinc waste product wliicli is apt to cloj^ it. The 

 ant wants to scciux' tliat waste product as a valuable 

 f(X)d-stuit. Hence, from all time, an offensive and 

 defensive alliance of the profoundest type lias been 

 mutuallv struck up between ants and aphides. 

 How far this alliance has j^one is truly wonderful. 

 The ants not merely "milk" the aphides, but actu- 

 allv collect them toj^ether in herds and keep them 

 in parks as domestic animals. Nay, more ; as Sir 

 John Lubbock has pointed out, different kinds of 

 ants domesticate dilierent breeds of aphides, as each 

 is suited to the other's conditions. The common 

 black garden ant attends chiefly to the a[ihides 

 which frequent twij^s and leaves, such as this very 

 rose-aphis — for the black ant is a rover and a good 

 tree-climber ; he is much j^iven to explorinj^ ex- 

 peditions over the surface of plants in search of 

 honey, and he is not particular whether he happens 

 to gather it from llowers or from insects. The 

 brown ant, on the other hand, goes in rather for 

 such species of aphides as frecjuent the crannies 

 in the bark of trees ; while the little yellow ant, 

 an almost subterranean race, living underground 

 among the grass roots in meadows, "keeps flocks 

 and herds" (says Lubbock) "of the root-feeding 

 aphides." All these facts you can verify for your- 

 self with very little trouble. 



It is most interesting to watch a black ant on the 

 prowl after honey-dew. He is evidentlv led on to 

 the herd by smell, for he mounts the stem where 



B 



