SIE J. LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 183 



are not, then, truly oviparous, since their young are almost as 

 perfect as they ever will be, in the asylum in which Nature has 

 placed them at their birth"*. 



This is, I think, a mistake. This is not the opportunity to 

 describe the anatomy of the Aphis ; but I may observe that I 

 have examined the female, and find these eggs to arise in the 

 manner so well described by Huxley in our ' Transactions 'f, 

 and which I have also myself observed in other Aphides and 

 in allied generaj. Moreover, I have opened the eggs themselves, 

 and have also examined sections, and have satisfied myself that 

 they are true eggs containing ordinary yelk. If examined while 

 still in the ovary the germ-vesicle presents the usual appearance, 

 but in laid eggs I was unable to detect it. So far from the young 

 insect being "nearly perfect," and merely enveloped in a pro- 

 tective membrane, no limbs or internal organs are present. These 

 bodies are indeed real ova, or pseudova ; and the young Aphis 

 does not develop in them until shortly before they are hatched. 



When my eggs hatched I naturally thought that the Aphides 

 belonged to one of the species usually found on the roots of plants 

 in the nests o^Lasiusjlavus. To my surprise, however, the young 

 creatures made the best of their way out of the nest, and, indeed, 

 were sometimes brought out by the ants themselves. In vain I 

 tried them with roots of grass &c, ; they wandered uneasily about, 

 and eventually died. Moreover, they did not in any way resemble 

 the subterranean species. In 1878 I again attempted to rear 

 these young Aphides ; but though I hatched a great many eggs, I 

 did not succeed. This year, however, I have been more fortu- 

 nate. The eggs commenced to hatch the first week in March. 

 Near one of my nests of Lasius Jlavus, in which I had placed 

 some of the eggs in question, was a glass containing living 

 specimens of several species of plant commonly found on or 

 around ants' nests. To this some of the young Aphides were 

 brought by the ants. Shortly afterwards I observed on a plant 

 of daisy, in the axils of the leaves, some small Aphides, very much 

 resembling those from my nest, though we had not actually traced 

 them continuously. They seemed thriving, and remained statio- 

 nary on the daisy. Moreover, whether they had sprung from 

 the black eggs or not, the ants evidently valued them, for they 

 built up a wall of earth round and over them. So things re- 

 mained throughout the summer ; but on the 9th Oct. I found that 



* The Natural History of Ants. By M. P. Huber, 1820, p. 246. 



t Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxii, (1859). J Philosophical Transactions 1859. 



