PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



73 



drive them away, and may be seen running about in a great 

 bustle, and exhibiting every symptom of inquietude and anger. 

 Sometimes, to rescue them from their rivals, they take their 

 Aphides in their mouth ; they generally keep guard round them, 

 and when the branch is conveniently situated, they have re- 

 course to an expedient still more effectual to keep off inter- 

 lopers, — they inclose it in a tube of earth or other materials, 

 and thus confine them in a kind of paddock 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 for- 

 micaries, which are sometimes of considerable diameter. I 

 mean the yellow ant of Gould (F. 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 subter- 

 ranean galleries, excavated for the purpose, leading from the 

 nest in all directions 1 ; 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 ten- 

 derness, 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 

 observed 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. 



1 Huber, 195. I have more than once found these Aphides in the nests of 

 this species of ant. 



