PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 91 
spring, on a sunny day, I observed a parcel of these eggs, 
which I knew by their black colour, very near the sur- 
face of the nest. My attack put the ants into a great fer- 
ment, and they immediately began to carry these inter- 
esting objects down into the interior of the nest. It is of 
great consequence to them to forward the hatching of 
these eggs as much as possible, in order to ensure an 
early source of food for their colony ; and they had doubt- 
less in this instance brought them up to the warmest part 
of their dwelling with this view. M. Huber, in a nest of 
the same ant, at the foot of an oak, once found the eggs of 
Aphis Querciis, L. 
Our yellow ants are equally careful of their Aphides 
after they are hatched, when their nest is disturbed con- 
veying them into the interior, fighting fiercely for them if 
the inhabitants of neighbouring formicaries, as is some- 
times the case, attempt to make them their prey ; and car- 
rying them about in their mouths to change their pasture, 
or for some other purpose. When you consider that 
from them they receive almost the whole nutriment both 
of themselves and larvae, you will not wonder at their 
anxiety about them, since the wealth and prosperity of 
the community is in proportion to the number of their 
cattle. Several other species keep Aphides in their nests, 
but none in such numbers as those of which I am speak- 
ing?, 
When the population exceeds the produce of a coun- 
try, or its inhabitants suffer oppression, or are not com- 
4 See Huber, chap, vi, [have found Aphides in the nest of ALyr- 
mica rubra. Boisier de Sauvages speaks of ants keeping their own 
Aphides, and gives an interesting account of them. Journ. de Phy- 
sique, 1.195, 
