26*2 
MEMBRACIDJE. 
ANTS AND MEMBRACID2E. 
The singular economic relation between ants and members of different orders of 
insects, (that is, orders separate from the family), has been often commented upon. The 
particular affection, we may almost call it, of the Hymenopterous ants for their 
less highly endowed neighbours the Hemiptera, as is instanced by the Cicadse, 
Cercopidse, Aphidse, and now proved to be the case in the Membracidae, is an interesting 
fact, but what is still unexplained is the character or the object of the parasitism which 
is often connected with it. 
Ants are good friends to Membracidae, and they readily yield up to the former 
their juices or syrups, which appear to be excretions from organs connected with 
their renal systems. Much has been written on so-called “honeydew” and its 
supposed connection with the manna of the wilderness. It is obvious that the 
herding of Aphidae in some ants’ nests, presumably for the honeydew, which 
Boussingault says may be secreted by the pound-weight, cannot explain the herding 
in such nests of at least sixty different species of beetles, which do not elaborate 
such sweet liquids. 
The economic cause of this affection for the insects of a different order is as yet 
obscure to us. 
Mr. E. Green has given a circumstantial account of the attention afforded by 
ants to Ceresa nectaris of Ceylon, and probably this will not prove to be the solitary 
instance of such attention. The production of honeydew must be looked on rather 
as an excretion, and its voidance as a necessary part of the insect’s economy, and 
if so, it must be considered to be a waste product. The fact that the waste product of 
one animal is often the nutriment of another, is no new condition of the endless 
resources of natural economy. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
No attempt has been here made to discuss the Phylum or Sfock of the family 
Membracidee, for if it could be proved scientifically, it would involve the explanation 
of some of the most intricate problems of variation and the most obscure phenomena 
of animal development. 
Neither is the question discussed whether particular forms of life may have 
appeared simultaneously in more than one centre, for the difficulty often is to show 
consistently, the direction of a spread and its consequences from a single centre. 
With the exception of the Arctic regions, we may say that the distribution of these 
