food during the following summer, a case of prudence unexampled in the animal kingdom."

The Cocci, or Gallinsecta, as Réaumer calls them, are the Guernseys of the little people. They, like aphides, yield a serviceable secretion, either letting it fall on the trees and plants on which they feed, or, when waited upon by the ants, offer it to them in return for their antennal caresses. The female is like a scale of a brown colour formed of many segments, convex above and flat below, and it fastens itself upon the stalks, branches, and leaves of trees, shrubs, and plants by means of its beak, with which it sucks up the vegetable juices. It is found on the elm, oak, lime, oleander, myrtle, etc., and its presence is familiar to us on many greenhouse plants in company with ants, which visit it for its sweet and pleasant milk, where it is called the scale insect. The male is winged and active. The valuable cochineal insect which belongs to this family is called Coccus cacti. It is found in Mexico on the nopal, or prickly pear, and it is said that they are always accompanied by

ants.

Some ants are omnivorous, e.g., Myrmica lævinodis, which is a common ant in Stonehouse; my vicarage garden abounds with it. I have seen it feasting in the yellow blossom of the buttercup, on the crimson petals of the rhododendron, and on the tender buds of the yucca. I have noticed it milking its cows, and holding high festival on the dead body of the green linnet. The Formica rufa I have noticed bearing off insects wherewith to replenish its larder, and visiting trees for the purpose of milking its kine. A bird or a rat thrown upon its heaped-up nest will

soon be devoured by the myriads of its inhabitants, who leave nothing but a skeleton as if prepared for an anatomical museum.

The common garden ant, Formica nigra (Lasius niger), is omnivorous, as may be gathered from what has already been narrated. It delights to milk its cows, and it luxuriates in larvæ in fine condition. The Myrmica domestica (Diplorhoptrum domesticum) also, the pest of many a London house, as it is often reckoned, yet renders friendly service, for while it rejoices in almonds and sugar, it considers a cockroach a delicacy.

The Madeira Ant, Tapinoma gracilescens, also, does not object to any kind of food. Sugar is its ordinary diet, yet I have seen it, assisted by a companion, bearing along in triumph, for the benefit of the home circle, many a fine house-fly. The slavemaking ant has a taste for animal food as well as a sweet mandible. I have seen it in my formicarium devouring a wasp, as well as sipping at a tray of moistened sugar; and in its native haunts I have seen it hurrying along with a rare beetle, Canopsis fusirostris, a dainty meal, to tempt the appetite of the old folks at home. Into the extraordinary history of interesting species of ant I propose to enter in the next chapter.

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CHAPTER XV.

The Slave makers-How Formica sanguinea may be distinguished from Formica rufa-The Author's Visits to Shirley Common in search of the Formica sanguinea-Discovery of a Nest-The Slaves -Other Species of Ants besides F. fusca found in the Slave-maker's Nest-The Workers, Males, and Females of the Slave-makers described.

THOUGH it is twenty years since I commenced the study of ants, it was not till 1877 that I discovered the habitat of Formica sanguinea-the slave-maker. In 1876 I visited Weybridge, where it used to be abundant, and though I followed strictly the explicit directions of Mr. F. Smith, I did not find sanguinea at home. Formica rufa, the common wood-ant, I found in abundance, but not the slave-maker. Formica sanguinea is very similar in its general appearance to Formica rufa, and it may easily be taken for it by the uninitiated, especially the small workers.

There is, however, a distinct, well-defined characteristic, by which Charles Darwin identified the species, and with which characteristic he was furnished by Mr. Smith, who also pointed it out to me, and which enabled me to distinguish it from any number of F. rufa. While describing the construction of an

FIG. 29.-Formica sanguinea. a, worker; b, head of ditto.

a.-1, scape, and 2, flagellum of antenna; 3, lateral eyes; 4, ocelli; 5, prothorax; 6, mesothorax; 7, metathorax; 8, coxa; 9, trocanter; 10, femur; 11, tibia; 12, tarsus.

b-1, scape, and 2, flagellum of antenna; 3, lateral eyes; 4, ocelli; a, fronta area; 6, emarginate clypeus.

a

FIG. 30.-Formica rufa. The wood-ant.

a, male; b, female; c, worker.

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ant's mouth I mentioned that the upper lip, or labrum, is protected by its shield, the clypeus. The clypeus extends from beneath the frontal area (see Fig. 28, a), a triangular plate at the insertion of the antennæ, to the upper lip, which it conceals. Now the anterior margin of this clypeus is distinctly emarginate in F. sanguinea-i.e., instead of having an even edge, and lightly keeled, as in F. rufa, it is decidedly notched. (See Fig. 28, B.)

Furnished with this unfailing characteristic, I started from London on June 5th, 1877, in search of the slave-maker, being supplied also with a plan of Shirley Common and its neighbourhood, whither I was bound; and on the plan sketched by Mr. Smith were two spots indicated, where he assured me I should be certain to find sanguinea. I soon reached Croydon by rail, and lost no time in hastening past well-kept gardens bright with rhododendron and scarlet may, through open fields, to the first spot indicated, between Croydon and Shirley, at the stump of an old oak-tree. I searched most carefully, but, alas! in vain. Sanguinea had either migrated or become extinct. I went forward and reached the elevated common- -a lovely piece of broken ground, covered with heather and fern and gorse, studded here and there with the aromatic and picturesque Scotch firs, fringed with the tender green of umbrageous oak, elegant silver birch, and other deciduous trees, and commanding an extensive view of a well-wooded, undulating country; and full of hope that my search after sanguinea would be crowned with the much-coveted success, I examined and re-examined the second spot in my plan indicated as its habitat. At the very spot I found what