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THE BROOK BOOK 



ant which builds a shed for the protection of its 

 herds. Finding a well-estabHshed family of aphids 

 on a convenient shrub, these ants turn to and 

 construct a mud-walled shed inclosing as many as 

 possible. Thus protected from their enemies, the 

 aphids live comfortably. I doubt if either aphis- 

 lions or young lady-bugs know enough about cow- 

 sheds to search for them, and the chances are 

 strongly against their happening on the small 

 doorway of these rare and innocent-looking mud 

 houses. As older generations of aphids pass away, 

 their numerous progeny take their places and the 

 supply of honey-dew is constant. 



I never see a certain specimen in the university 

 museum, of which the illustration on this page is 



a careful copy, without a thrill 

 of pride. Not that I was so 

 wise as to know where to look 

 for such a treasure, but that 

 fortune smiled on me one day 

 and directed my eye to the 

 particular plant that bore the 

 first "ants' cow -shed" which 

 had ever been discovered in 

 that locality. The field class 

 in entomology had just turned 

 about and faced homeward 

 after a successful day collecting on the banks of 

 the "Little Indian." We came finally to the high 

 bluff up which we must climb to get out of the 

 gorge and into the road. No one had thought of 

 ants or aphids since up in the beech woods we 



AN ants' "cow-shed" 



