62 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
amount of method shown by the ants in farming their 
aphides. He says : — 
When my eggs hatched I naturally thought that the aphides 
belonged to one of the species usually found on the roots of 
plants in the nests of Lasius jlavus. To my surprise, however, 
the young creatures made the best of their way out of the nest, 
and, indeed, were sometimes brought out by the ants them- 
selves. In vain I tried them with roots of grass, &e. ; they 
wandered uneasily about, and eventually died. Moreover, they 
did not in any way resemble the subterranean species. In 1878 
I again attempted to rear these young aphides ; but though I 
hatched a great many eggs, I did not succeed. This year, how- 
ever, I have been more fortunate. The eggs commenced to 
hatch the first week in March. Near one of my nests of Lasius 
flavus , in which I had placed some of the eggs in question, was 
a glass containing living specimens of several species of plants 
commonly found on or around ants’ nests. To this some of 
the young aphides were brought by the ants. Shortly after- 
wards I observed on a plant of daisy, in the axils of the leaves, 
some small aphides, very much resembling those from my nest, 
though we had not actually traced them continuously. They 
seemed thriving, and remained stationary on the daisy. More- 
over, whether they had sprung from the black eggs or not, the 
ants evidently valued them, for they built up a wall of earth 
round and over them. So things remained throughout the 
summer, but on October 9 I found that the aphides had laid 
some eggs exactly resembling those found in the ants’ nests • 
and on examining daisy plants from outside, I found on many 
of them similar aphides, and more or less of the same eggs. 
I confess these observations surprised me very much. The 
statements of Huber have not, indeed, attracted so much notice 
as many of the other interesting facts which he has recorded ; 
because if aphides are kept by ants in their nests, it seems only 
natural that their eggs should also occur. The above case, 
however, is much more remarkable. Here are aphides, not 
living in the ants’ nests, but outside, on the leaf-stalks of plants. 
The eggs are laid early in October on the food-plant of the in- 
sect. They are of no direct use to the ants, yet they are not 
left where they are laid, where they would be exposed to the 
severity of the weather and to innumerable dangers, but brought 
into their nests by the ants, and tended by them with the ut- 
most care through the long winter months until the following 
March, when the young ones are brought out and again placed 
