
180 THE INSECT WORLD. 
when they were set down they remained in the place chosen 
for them by their guardians. When the ants wished to move 
them to a fresh place, they began by caressing them with their 
antenne, as if to request them to abandon their roots or to 
withdraw their trunk from the cavity in which it was inserted ; 
then they took them gently above or below the abdomen with 
their teeth, and carried them with the same care they would have 
bestowed on the larve of their own species. I saw the same ant 
take three plant-lice in succession, each bigger than itself, and 
carry them away into a dark place..... However, the ants 
do not always act so gently towards them. When they fear 
that they may be carried off by ants of another kind, and 
living near their habitation, or when one opens up too suddenly 
the turf under which they are hidden, they seize them up im 
haste and carry them off to the bottom of their little cavern. 
T have seen the ants of two different ant-hills fighting for their 
plant-lice. When those belonging to one ants’ nest could enter 
the nest of the others, they took them away from their rightful 
owners, and often these took possession of them again in their 
turn; for the ants know well the value of these little animals, 
which seem made on purpose for them,—they are the ants’ 
treasures. An ants’ nest is more or less rich according as it 18 
more or less stocked with plant-lice. The plant-lice are its cattle, 
its cows, its goats. One would never have thought that the ants 
were a pastoral people !”’ * . 
Their hiding in the ants’ nest is not voluntary; they are 
prisoners of war. The ants, after having hollowed out galleries 
in the midst of roots, make a foray upon the turf, and seize 
upon plant-lice scattered about here and there, bringing them with 
them, and collect them together in their nests. The captive 
insects take their wrongs with patience, and behave like philo- 
sophers under this new kind of life. They lavish on their masters, 
with the best grace in the world, the nutritious juices with which 
their bodies superabound. Charles Bonnet has stated some real 
wonders of the cleverness and industry of other ants which also 
make a provision of plant-lice. 
‘«‘T discovered one day,”’ says he, “a euphorbia, which supported 
* Recherches, &¢., pp. 192—194. 
