of a plant where these insects are
abundant. In order to have their milkers at their disposal, without
removing them from pasture, the ants make tunnels along the stalk, and
enclose within it all the Aphides they meet. They thus prevent any
desire for a distant ramble. But in order that the flock may not be
too closely confined, the _Lasius niger_ enlarge the galleries in
places, and make a sort of chamber or stable in which the beasts may
disport themselves at ease. These halls, which are proportionately
very vast, are supported against the branches and leaves of the plant
which bears up the walls and the vaults. The captives find themselves
then with all the advantages of material life, and may be milked with
every facility.[67]

[67] P. Huber, _Recherches sur les Moeurs des Fourmis
indigenes_, pp. 176-200.

An allied species of ant, the _Lasius brunneus_, lives almost entirely
on the sweet secretion of large Aphides in the bark of oaks and walnut
trees. The ants construct around these insects cabins made of
fragments of wood, and wall them in completely so as to keep them at
their own disposal.

The _Myrmica_ also forms similar pasture lands; its system is rather
less perfect than that of the _Lasius_, as it does not form covered
galleries to reach its stables. It is content to build large earth
huts around a colony. A large hole, which allows the passage of the
ants, but not the escape of the flock, is formed so that they may come
to milk their cows. They use the same methods we have seen practised
on the _Claviger_, caressing the insect with their antennae until the
sugared drop appears.[68]

[68] In Central America, Belt has described how the
Leaf-hoppers are milked for their honey by various species
of Ants, and also by a Wasp. He considered that some species
of Leaf-hopper would be exterminated if it were not for the
protection they received from Ants.--_Naturalist in
Nicaragua_, 1888, pp. 227-230.

An example is quoted which shows still greater intelligence and
foresight in Ants. They have been known to repopulate their
territories after an epidemic, or at least after the destruction of
their Aphides. The proprietor of a tree, finding it covered with these
exploited beasts, cleared it of its inconvenient guests by repeated
washes; but the dispossessed Hymenoptera, considering that this
pasture close to their nest was very convenient for a flock, resol