MILCH-COWS OF THE ANTS. 
HILE much has been written upon the social rela- 
tions subsisting between ants and aphides, yet the 
subject never grows uninteresting or threadbare. New facts 
are brought to light as observations widen and extend, some 
tending to confirm, and others to subvert old notions. 
That aphides excrete a sweet, viscid, honey-like fluid, 
which affords food for many species of ants, has been long 
known to naturalists. Any one can convince himself of this 
truth if he will but put himself to the trouble of examining 
the leaves or branchlets of any plant at the proper season of the 
year. Scattered upon the foliage and tender twigs thereof will 
be found millions of aphides, and close beside them countless 
ants, that ever and anon will be seen to caress, by means of 
their antenne, the little creatures for the sweets within their 
bodies. It has even been asserted that some species of ants 
keep aphides as human beings do cows, but this by the 
many has been doubted, or deemed imaginary. 
When a young man the writer was disposed to drift with 
the popular opinion in this particular, but a few facts that 
fell under his notice whilst searching for carabi and other 
beetles that live under stones and decayed logs, changed the 
bias of his mind and established in him the idea that with 
one species of ant this was at least the case. 
It was on an occasion while exploring a neighboring 
thicket for the objects of his search, that he discovered, 
underneath a large flat stone which he had raised, a nest of 
a small red ant, which he took to be the Lasius flavus of the 
books. The ground was covered all over with pits, and 
