Io6 THE INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. 



of the COW or the goat Ants have true domestic 

 animals belonging to a variety of species, but the 

 most widely spread are the Claviger and the Aphides 

 or plant-lice. To keep these insects at their disposal, 

 Hymenoptera act in various ways : some, who are a 

 little experienced, are content to take advantage of a 

 free aphis which chance may put in their way; others 

 shut up their cattle in stables situated in the midst 

 of the ant-hill, or else pen them in the country at a 

 spot where they can best find their food. These facts 

 have long since been carefully studied and leave no 

 room for doubt. 



The Claviger testaceus is a small beetle, often 

 met in the dwellings of ants. Nature has not been 

 very generous on its behalf. It is blind, and its eyes 

 are indeed altogether atrophied. The elytra are 

 soldered at the median edge, so that it cannot spread 

 its wings to fly. It is an animal predestined to the 

 yoke ; and for the rest its masters treat it with 

 extreme kindness. The yellow ants, according to 

 Miiller,! have reduced this outcast beetle to do- 

 mesticity, and it is almost a piece of good fortune 

 for him to have lost his freedom and to have gained 

 in exchange a shelter and a well-furnished trough. 

 These insects are in fact cared for by their masters, 

 who feed them by disgorging into their mouths the 

 sweet liquids they have gathered here and there. If a 

 nest is disturbed the ants hasten to carry their eggs and 

 larvEC out of danger ; they display the same solicitude 

 with regard to the Claviger, and carefully bear them to 

 the depth of their galleries. It must not be believed 



1 Ph. W. J. Miiller, " Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte der Gattung 

 Claviger," Germer, a. Zincketis Magaz. d, Entomol., iii., 1881, pp. 

 69-112. 



