536 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
tube of earth or other materials, and thus confine them ina kind of pad. 
dock near their nest, and often communicating with it. 
The greatest cow-keeper of all the ants is one to be met with in most 
of our pastures, residing in hemispherical formicaries, which are sometimes 
of considerable diameter. I mean the yellow ant of Gould (2*. flava), 
This species, which is not fond of roaming from home, and likes to have 
all its conveniences within reach, usually collects in its nest a large herd 
of a kind of Aphis that derives its nutriment from the roots of grass and 
other plants (Aphis radicum) ; these it transports from the neighbouring 
roots, probably by subterranean galleries, excavated for the purpose, 
leading from the nest in all directions’; and thus, without going out, it 
has always at hand a copious supply of food. These creatures share its 
care and solicitude equally with its own offspring. ‘To the eggs it pays 
particular attention, moistening them with its tongue, carrying them in its 
mouth with the utmost tenderness, and giving them the advantage of the 
sun. This last fact I state from my own observation; for once upon 
Opening one of these ant-hills early in the spring, on a sunny day, I ob. 
served a parcel of these eggs, which I knew by their black colour, very 
near the surface of the nest. My attack put the ants into a great ferment, 
and they immediately began to carry these interesting 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 insure an early 
source of food for their colony ; and they had doubtless 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 Quercus. 
Our yellow ants are equally careful of their Aphides after they are 
hatched ; when their nest is disturbed conveying them into the interior; 
fighting fiercely for them if the inhabitants of neighbouring formicaries, as 
is sometimes the case, attempt to make them their prey; and carrying 
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 larva, you will not wonder at 
their anxiety about them, since the wealth and prosperity of the commu- 
nity 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 speaking.? 
Not only the Aphides yield this repast to the ants, but also the Cocci, 
with whom they have recourse to similar manceuvres, and with equal suc- 
cess; only in this case the movement of the antenne over their body may 
be compared to the thrill of the finger over the keys of a piano-forte; and 
in the tropical regions of India and Brazil (where no Aphides occur) it 
appears, from the observations of General Hardwicke, M. Lund, M. Bescke, 
and MM. Spix and Martius, that the ants milk the larve and pupa of 
various species of Cercopis and Membracs.8 But what is still more extra- 
ordinary, eyen beetles are occasionally made cows of by Formica flava, the 
4 Huber, 195. I have more than once found these Aphides in the nests of this 
species of ant. 
® See Huber, chap. vi. I have found Aphides in the nest of Myrmica rubra. 
Boisier de Sauvages speaks of ants keeping their own Aphides, and gives an ie 
teresting account of them. Journ, de Physique, i. 199. 
3 Westwood, Mod. Class of Ins, ii, 239. 434, 
