This thought may be carried even further, for the ant is known 
to allure plant lice into its burrows in the ground and provide 
food in the burrow for the use of the plant lice, thus stabling 
and feeding, as it were, its herd of cows. 
Many people think that the ants upon their plants are caus¬ 
ing the latter to suffer, whereas, we know now, they are only 
an evidence of the presence of aphides, and a close inspection 
will reveal the true state of affairs. 
SUGGESTIONS TO THE TEACHER 
If you can find a plant with a goodly colony of plant lice 
upon it, you may find many interesting phenomena. There will 
be old and young, some feeding, some walking, some moulting, 
some giving birth to young, and some, perhaps, with wings. 
The moulted skins may be found about the plant, some cling¬ 
ing to the leaves where the insects are. 
If you wish to observe the rapidity of reproduction, put a 
small quantity of water in a tumbler and place in it a leaf on 
which you have four or five mature lice ; cover over with a 
small pane of glass ; make a record, and observe the next day 
the increase, record results and repeat observation daily, until you 
have enough data to form definite conclusions. This experiment 
could be conducted in the schoolroom, where the pupils could 
also make observations. 
In another tumbler put a definite number of young just 
born, to determine the number of moults and the time to ma¬ 
turity. 
In another tumbler put ten mature aphides without any food 
material, and observe day by day if they give birth to young in 
the absence of proper food material. 
Observe from these, also, whether there are any moultings 
after maturity of the insect. 
You may observe occasionally a globule of "honey dew” ap¬ 
pearing upon the tube when the insect stands upon its head, 
and, as if by a kick, the globule is thrown off. If a sheet of 
paper lies under an overhanging leaf under which are feeding 
