THE FORMICIDAL. 
20 7 
platforms and beams of about the thickness of paper, and makes 
upright partitions of the same delicacy, and these include and 
partition off rooms and cells, the number of which may be really 
said to be immense. In some places they make little columns 
instead of the partitions, which give a miniature palatial aspect 
to the excavation. Other ants settle down inside the beams 
of houses, and interfere with the safety of large buildings in 
consequence of their very intelligent and destructively exca- 
vating habits. All these different species, which have such 
diverse constructive instincts, appear to take care of their larvae 
in very much the same way ; but there is one kind, Formica 
sanguinea , which is of an iron-red colour, that settles down 
in the nests of other species, especially in those of the brown 
and mining ants, and singularly enough it attacks these kinds 
in order to carry away their nymphs, so as to make slaves of them. 
This is an extraordinary fact, but there are other examples of the 
same kind, which we shall notice presently. We have already 
mentioned the curious use that some ants make of the Aphides. 
The red ants visit the plants which are covered by them, 
but they do not hesitate to look after cochineal insects, scale 
insects, and several Hemiptera ; moreover, in those parts of the 
world where there are no Aphides or scale insects these ants seek 
the Cicadellce. But under certain circumstances the ants do not 
care about passing good food in order to enjoy the tiny drops of 
aphis liquor, so in order to save time they bring the authors of 
these little luxuries into the immediate neighbourhood of their 
nests, and sometimes carry them inside. This is peculiarly 
the case amongst the ants which lead very sedentary lives, and 
they select those Aphides which live upon grass and roots. 
Such species of the genus Formica are always very attentive 
to the captive Aphides , which they collect together in con- 
siderable flocks. Huber says that an ant’s nest is all the 
richer according to the number of its captives ; these are the 
cattle, the cows, and the goats of the ant tribe. Besides these 
objects of care, many little insects live with the ants, and 
receive very good treatment from them. Some of them will be 
noticed in the next chapter, so it must suffice at present to state 
that the young of the beetles of the genus Clavigera have 
