ANTS AND ANT LIFE. 123 



the outlets of the subterranean galleries, a number of ants 

 were assembled, which were fed by the returning ants after 

 the fashion already described in feeding the larvae, and 

 which were distinguished by the observer as " pensioners." 

 McCook often observed the same fact later, among, with 

 others, the already described Pennsylvanian wood-ant. Dis- 

 tinguished individuals in the body-guard of the queen were 

 fed in like fashion. McCook is inclined to think that the 

 reason of this proceeding is to be found in the " division of 

 labor" so general in the Ant Republic, and that the 

 members of the community which are employed in building 

 and working within the nest, leave to the others the care 

 of providing food for themselves as well as for the younger 

 and helpless members ; they thus have a claim to receive 

 from time to time a reciprocal toll of gratitude, and take 

 it, as is shown very clearly, in a way demanded by the 

 welfare of the community. 



The plant-lice and gall-insects are not, as said above, the 

 only milch-cows of the ants. There is a large number 

 found in the nests with the other frequently seen insects, 

 which are all comprised under the name of Myrmecophila, 

 or ant-friends, and which differ very much according to 

 varying circumstances, in different species and in different 

 lands. All myrmecophilous insects are alike in this, that 

 they secrete a sweet juice which the ants can feed upon. 

 In order to obtain this object the ants spare no time and no 

 trouble, and they treat their sweet friends with a love, a 

 thoughtf ulness and a care which would be worthy surprise 

 as an image of friendship, were it not for the strong egoistical 

 interest mixed therewith. Most of the Myrmecophila are 

 blind, becaiise living in the perpetual darkness of the nest 

 they have no need of eyes, or rather because their visual 

 organs have gradually become rudimentary by continued 

 disuse. They are therefore, being unable to seek food for 

 themselves, entirely dependent on their lords and protectors 

 the ants, just in the same way as, and still more than, 

 domestic animals, such as the dog, are dependent upon man. 

 Unfortunately most of the Myrmecophila called also ant 

 parasites, and reckoned by Lespes as containing three 

 hundred different species are still very little known. Espe- 

 cially remarkable, according to Lespes, is the behavior of 

 ants towards a kind of blind beetle, the Claviger beetle, which 



