Milky 'Juice. 67 



hairy leaves, and the like. Amongst other experiments, 

 I placed various kinds of ants upon sundry plants that 

 were full of milky juice, and especially upon Laduca 

 augustana Chaix, and Laduca sativa, L. Having done 

 this I was not a little surprised to see the ants ^ very 

 soon glued down by the mUky juice. Such, however, 

 was the case. No sooner had the ants reached the 

 uppermost leaves, or the peduncles and the involucral 

 bracts, than at each movement the terminal hooks 

 of their feet cut through the epiderm, and from the 

 little clefts thus made milky juice immediately began 

 to flow. Not only the feet of the ants but the hinder 

 parts of their body were soon bedrabbled with the 

 white fluid ; and if the ants, as was frequently the case, 

 bit into the tissue of the epiderm in self-defence, their 

 organs of mastication also at once became coated 

 over with the milky juice. By this the ants were much 

 impeded in their movements, and in order to rid them- 

 selves of the annoyance to which they were subjected, 

 drew their feet through their mouths and tried also 

 to clear the hinder part of their body from the juice 

 with which it was smeared. The movements, however, 

 which accompanied these efforts simply resulted in the 

 production of new fissures in the epiderm and fresh 

 discharges of milky juice, so that the position of the 

 ants became each moment worse and worse. Many of 



^ The species used in these experiments were Oamponotus ligni- 

 perdms, Myrmica Icevinodis Nyl, and Formica rufa. 



