372 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



Not only the Aphides yield this repast to the ants, but also the Cocci, 

 with whom they have recourse to similar manoeuvres, and with equal suc- 

 cess ; only in this case the movement of the antennae over their body may 

 be compared to the thrill of the finger over the keys of a piano-forte ; 

 and in the tropical regions of India and Brazil (where no Aphides occur) 

 it appears, from the observations of General Hardwicke, M. Lund, M. 

 Bescke, and MM. Spix and Martins, that the ants milk the larvae and 

 pupae of various species of Cercopis and Membracis} But what is still 

 more extraordinary, even beetles are occasionally made cows of by Formica 

 jlava, the yellow ant, which, according to Miiller's very curious account of 

 its habits, confirmed by M. Wesmael, keeps in its nest the singular little 

 Claviger fovcolatus (which Mr. Westwood has discovered in this abode 

 in England), and obtains from the bristles terminating its elytra a gummy 

 secretion which it uses for food, as it does that obtained from Aphides, 

 feeding the Clavigers in return for this service, and carefully guarding 

 them from straying, which if they attempt it seizes them with its jaws.^ 

 Their herds of these hard-coated yellow cattle are often numerous ; for 

 when paying a visit in 1829 to my friend Professor Germar at Halle in 

 Prussia, he showed me a whole row of specimens from which he begged 

 me to select at pleasure, all of which, if I recollect right, he had obtained 

 from one ant's nest. It is probable that another species of Claviger (C 

 longicornis,) which M. Robert found also in an ant's nest, is made a simi- 

 lar use of by them. 



One of the singular circumstances in the history of ants, and which 

 requires further explanation, is, that besides the two beetles just named, 

 many other species of the same tribe, mostly of small size, are also found 

 in their nests, and so constantly, that it cannot arise from accident. My 

 friend M. Chevrolat of Paris, who has been more successful in procuring 

 new and rare coleopterous insects from this habitat than perhaps any 

 other entomologist, has obtained the greatest number from the nests of 

 Formica rufa Lair., in which he has found Lomechusa strumosa and den- 

 taia, a new species of XanthoUnus, Dendrophilus pi/gmceus Payk., D. 

 formicdorum Aube. and D. Gucrini Chevr., and Monotoma conicollis, and 

 M. formicetorum Chevr. He has also found several specimens of Lome- 

 chusa paradoxa in the nest of Formica cunicularia Latr., and Abrteus 

 globulus Payk., Batrisus formicarius De la Porte, and B. oculatus, and 

 B. venustus Aube, as well as his singular new insect Myrmechixenus 

 subterrancus, in other nests ; and M. Reiche has also found Hceterius 

 quadratus in the nest of Myrmica unifasciata, as has Mr. MacLeay a crepi- 

 tating species of Cerapterus in ants' nests in Australia.^ Besides the 

 above, M. Chevrolat has observed in some of these ants' nests isolated 

 larvae, as he supposes, of a Clythra, clothed with a case of gluten com- 

 bined with particles of earth and small stones'* ; and Mr. Westwood states 

 tliat he has often found in the nests both of Formica and Myrmica many 

 very young specimens of a white color of a species of Oniscm, of which 

 genus also, M. Lund in Brazil observed many of the ants of a column of 



Saiivages speaks of ants keeping their own Aphides, and gives an interesting account of 

 them. Jonrn. de Physique, i. 195. 



> Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. ii. 239. 434, 



* Germar, Masmin der Entoin. iii. t. 2. Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. i. 176. 



' Westwood, Mod. Class, of Ins. i. xii. * Silberinann, lievue Entom. iii. 263. 



