72 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



The loves of the ants and the Aphides (for these last are the 

 kine in question) have long been celebrated ; and that there 

 is a connexion between them you may at any time, in the 

 proper season, convince yourself ; for you will always find the 

 former very busy on those trees and plants on which the latter 

 abound : and if you examine more closely, you will discover 

 that their object in thus attending upon them is to obtain the 

 saccharine fluid, which may well be denominated their milk 1 , 

 that they secrete. 



This fluid, which is scarcely inferior to honey in sweetness, 

 issues in limpid drops from the abdomen of these insects, not 

 only by the ordinary passage, but also by two setiform tubes 

 placed, one on each side, just above it. Their sucker being 

 inserted in the tender bark, is without intermission employed 

 in absorbing the sap, which, after it has passed through the 

 system, they keep continually discharging by these organs. 

 When no ants attend them, by a certain jerk of the body, 

 which takes place at regular intervals, they ejaculate it to a 

 distance : but when the ants are at hand, watching the moment 

 when the Aphides emit their fluid, they seize and suck it down 

 immediately. This, however, is the least of their talents ; for 

 they absolutely possess the art of making them yield it at their 

 pleasure ; or, in other words, of milking them. On this oc- 

 casion their antennae are their fingers ; with these they pat 

 the abdomen of the aphis on each side alternately, moving 

 them very briskly ; a little drop of fluid immediately appears, 

 which the ant takes into its mouth, one species {Myrmica 

 rubra) conducting it with its antennae, which are somewhat 

 swelled at the end. When it has thus milked one, it proceeds 

 to another, and so on, till being satiated it returns to the nest. 



But you are not arrived at the most singular part of this 

 history, — that ants make a property of these cows, for the 

 possession of which they contend with great earnestness, and 

 use every means to keep them to themselves. Sometimes 

 they seem to claim a right to the Aphides that inhabit the 

 branches of a tree or the stalks of a plant ; and if stranger ants 

 attempt to share their treasure with them, they endeavour to 



1 The ant ascends the tree, says Linne, that it may milk its cows, the Aphides, 

 not kill them. Syst. Nat. 962. Sp. 3. 



