HEMIPTERA. 129 
The Red Ant (Lormica rufa) is singularly adroit in seizing the 
droplet left it by the plant-louse. According to Pierre Huber, it 
employs its antennz, which swell somewhat towards their extre- 
mities, in conveying this droplet to its mouth, and causes it to 
enter it by pressing it first on one side, then on the other, using 
its antennee as if they were fingers. The greater number of ants 
seek them on those plants on which they usually fix themselves— 
the lowest herbs, as well as the highest trees. There are some, 
however, which never leave their place of abode, and never go out 
to the chase. ‘These are the little ants, of a pale yellow colour, 
rather transparent, and covered with hairs, and which are extremely 
numerous in our meadows and orchards. These subterranean 
creatures are very noxious to the farmer. Pierre Huber often 
wondered how they subsisted, and with what food they could 
provision themselves, without quitting their gloomy habitations. 
Having one day turned up the earth of which a habitation was 
composed, in order to discover if any treasure were to be found 
stowed away there, he found nothing but plant-lice. - Of these 
the greater number were fixed to the roots of the trees which 
hung down from the roof of their subterranean nest; others 
were wandering about among the ants. These latter, more- 
over, set about milking their nurses as usual, and with the same 
success. ‘To verify his discovery, he dug up a great number of 
nests of the yellow ant, and invariably found in them aphides. 
So as to study the relations which must exist between these 
insects, he shut up ants with their friends, the plant-lice,.in a 
glazed box, placing at the bottom of the box, earth, mixed with 
the roots of some plants, whose branches vegetated outside the 
box. He watered this ant-hill from time to time, and thus both 
the animals and the plants found in his apparatus sufficient 
nourishment. 
“The ants,” he says, “did not endeavour in the least to make 
‘their escape. They seemed to want for nothing, and to be quite 
content. They tended their larve and females with the same 
affection they would have shown in their usual ant-hill; they took 
great care of the plant-lice, and never did them any harm. These, 
on the other hand, did not seem to fear the ants; they allowed 
themselves to be moved about from one place to another, and 
K 
