CHAPTER XIV.

The Aphides or Ant Cows Preserved and Bred by the British AntsTheir Form and Habits-How the Little People Milk their CowsHüber's Observation-Do the Ants Breed their Cows?-The Author's Observations and Discovery-Are the Aphides both Viviparous and Oviparous ?—The Marvellous History of the Milch-kine -The "Eggs are Pupa or the Nymphal form of the Aphis— Bonnett's view, indorsed by Hüber, correct-Sir J. Lubbock's Judgment—The Cocci or Gallinsecta—The Cochineal insect-Some Ants Omnivorous.

WHATEVER doubt may exist as to the relation existing between the ants and the coleoptera and the crustaceans, as represented by Platyarthrus Hoffmanseggii, none can exist concerning their association with the aphides and cocci, popularly called plantlice and scale insects, and both belonging to the order Hemiptera, an order which embraces also the crimson cochineal insect of commerce, the brilliant lantern-fly, and the musical and classical cicada.

The aphides, the gentle Alderneys of the ants, furnish the sweetest milk in great abundance, and are known emphatically as ant-cows. In almost every nest of the Yellow Ant, F. flava (L. flavus) I came across in my Blackheath excursion-and remember it was the winter season—I found some of these little cattle;

and such has been my experience in all subsequent investigations in the neighbourhood of Stonehouse, among the conical domiciles of F. flava (L. flavus). And though the British species of ants do not store grain for future consumption, as the Agricultural Ant

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FIG. 26.-1, Wingless Aphis; 2, Aphis with rud.mentary wings, antennæ bent back 3. Winged aphis. a, magnified. b, natural size.

of Texas, the Provident Ant of India, and the Harvesting Ants of the south of France, Italy, and Palestine, their wonderful habit of preserving and breeding their aphides is established as an unquestionable fact.

The ant-cows are of many colours, both apple and olive green, grey, black, white, and delicate violet. Their bodies are either roundish or oval; they are found both winged and wingless. Their antennæ are sometimes long and tapering to a point, or shorter with cylindrical joints. They are provided with a rostrum, or tube, which is sometimes of great length; and when at rest it is folded against the under part of the abdomen. With this instrument they suck. the sap of plants, by which they are nourished. They possess six legs, but are very slow in their movements. The punctures caused by their rostra sometimes so alters the form of the leaves and leafstalks they frequent, that excrescences or cavities are produced which serve to shelter them in large numbers. From this circumstance they are not inaptly termed "blight."

They now and then eject from their bodies the sweetest limpid drops, which are eagerly devoured by the ants when at hand. When such is not the case this viscid exudation falls upon the leaves of trees and shrubs they inhabit, and is known as honeydew. The little people oftentimes visit trees and plants on which the little cattle browse, to satisfy their appetite and carry off the honeyed aliment to their hungry young. When I see ants on trees or rose-bushes, the lordly oak or the worthless thistle, I know the cause of their presence at once, and am almost sure to find the aphis on a careful search. Sometimes, however, the fruit itself forms a dainty and luscious meal, and sometimes the honey in the nectaries of flowers, and even the sweet and tender buds and petals of expanded blossoms. The viscous liquid of the aphis is the

principal support of many kinds of ants, F. flava (L. flavus) especially, and the liquid they can obtain without waiting the pleasure of their cows.

Hüber observed a thistle-branch covered with brown ants and pucerons, as he calls the cows. He noticed an ant station itself near one of the smallest of their

FIG. 27.-Rose-branch with aphides.

cattle; it appeared to caress it by touching the extremity of its body alternately with its two antennæ with an exceedingly rapid movement. He saw with much surprise the fluid proceed from the body of the puceron and the ant take it in its mouth. Thus it is that the little people milk their cows. What the

Swiss naturalist saw I have seen, and, strange to say, it was upon a thistle-branch that I first watched the ants milk their cows; and the ants were brown, and they milked the aphides by causing their antennæ to vibrate over their bodies, as it has been aptly said, like the play of the fingers in a shake upon the pianoforte.

In one of my formicaria I observed both on March 22nd and 24th, 1868, a lilac-coloured cow being milked by several of the yellow tribe, F. flava (L. flavus), and on each occasion the operation took place in the same spot and in the same chamber. A little later in the same year I again witnessed an ant milk one of its cows, and after the operation I saw it seize its little Alderney in its mandibles and carry it to a place of shelter. The yellow ants lap up the milk with their tongues; the red, it has been confidently affirmed, with their antennæ, the last joint being enlarged, it may be, for this very purpose. The yellow ants breed their cattle and rear them through the different stages of their existence as carefully and tenderly as they do their own young. They construct their habitations oftentimes in situations especially suitable to their sustenance, their subterraneous corridors and chambers generally being found among the roots of grass, from the pleasant juices of which the milch kine extract their necessary nutriment by means of their invaluable sucking-pipes. But do the little people really breed their cows? Undoubtedly they do-I speak from personal observation.

At the close of winter, in March, 1877, I made forcible entrance into one of the elevated domes of the F. flava which adorn the Great Western Railway