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treme rapiditj', a fact that is quite necessary because they 

 are preyed upon and furnish food for a large number of 

 insects^ especially smaller kinds of flies. These latter in- 

 sects consider tlie aphids themselves as food, not as sources 

 of food supply, while ants realizing that the lice are more 

 valuable to them alive, than dead, often defend them from 

 other enemies or transport them bodily to other plants 

 where they will be less likely to be attacked and where they 

 can get a good supply of fodder. Each colony of ants has 

 its own herd of these "cows" and attends to them most as- 

 siduously for they are regarded as among their most valued 

 possessions. 



Not only do ants keep cows but they very frequently 

 have slaves to work for them. Large colonies of warrior 

 ants sometimes make raids upon neighboring cities of other 

 species, defeat them in pitched battles and carry home pris- 

 oners of war to work for them. The ant wars are no pink- 

 tea affairs, but are bloody conflicts. They go at one an- 

 other hammer and tongs, one side fighting for conquest, the 

 other for life. Many a head is nipped cleanly off by a 

 clever antagonist and many a soldier limps homeward after 

 the fray, minus one or more of his six legs. 



As is very well known, bees and wasps have their work- 

 ers and their drones. Ants are even more social and carry 

 class distinction or caste even farther. They have several 

 ■classes; — drones, workers, — these being undeveloped fe- 

 males, warriors, slaves, etc. The fully developed males 

 and females of most species are equipped ^vith vrings which 

 they shed after wearing for a short time. 



The tiny, yellowish-white eggs laid by the queen ants, 

 hatch in about two weeks, forming little helpless, white 

 larvae. These larvae are tended and fed by the worker 

 ants, being carried from chamber to chamber as they re- 

 quire more or less warmth. The larvae are fed until they 

 are full grown, taking three or four weeks, and then trans- 

 form into whitish pupae or cocoons. It is these tiny co- 

 coons that the workers are so busily carrying about when 



