ANIMAL COMMUNITIES AND SOCIAL LIFE 157 
the following spring before the corn is planted. Now, the 
common little brown ant lives abundantly in the corn- 
fields, and is specially fond of the honey secreted by the 
corn-root plant-louse. So, when the plant-lice hatch in the 
spring before there are corn roots for them to feed on, the 
little brown ants with great solicitude carefully place the 
plant-lice on the roots of a certain kind of knotweed which 
grows in the field, and protect them until the corn ger- 
minates. Then the ants remove the plant-lice to the roots 
of the corn, their favorite food plant. In the arid lands of 
"New Mexico and Arizona the ants rear their scale-insects 
on the roots of cactus. Other kinds of ants carry plant 
lice into their nests and provide them with food there. 
Because the ants obtain food from the plant-lice and take 
care of them, the plunt-lice are not inaptly called the ants’ 
cattle. 
Like the honey-bees, the young ants are helpless little 
grubs or larve, and are cared for and fed by nurses. The 
so-called ants’ eggs, little white, oval masses, which we 
often see being carried in the mouths of ants in and out of 
an ants’ nest, are not eggs, but are the pupx which are 
being brought out to enjoy the warmth and light of the 
sun or being taken back into the nest afterward. 
In addition to the workers that build the nest and col- 
lect food and care for the plant-lice, there is in many 
species of ants a kind of individuals called soldiers. These 
are wingless, like the workers, and are also, like the work- 
ers, not capable of laying or of fertilizing eggs. It is the 
business of the soldiers, as their name suggests, to fight. 
They protect the community by attacking and driving 
away predaceous insects, especially other ants. The ants 
are among the most warlike of insects. The soldiers of a 
community of one species of ant often sally forth and 
attack a community of some other species. If successful 
in battle the workers of the victorious community take 
possession of the food stores of the conquered and carry 
