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When a young man the writer was disposed to drift with the popular opinion in this particular, but a few facts that fell under his notice whilst searching for carabi and other beetles that live under stones and decayed logs, changed the bias of his mind and established in him the idea that with one species of ant this was at least the case.

It was on an occasion while exploring a neighboring thicket for the objects of his search, that he discovered, underneath a large flat stone which he had raised, a nest of a small red ant, which he took to be the Lasius flavus of the books. The ground was covered all over with pits, and divers communicating roads, and round about were hundreds of ants, larvæ in various stages of development, pupæ and eggs, and innumerous flocks of a white aphis, all of which were being tenderly cared for by a large army of thoughtful nurses.

NEST OF LASIUS.

Neuters About Their Work.

No sooner did the intrusion occur than the colony was a scene of busy activity. Interested in what was before him, the writer seated himself upon a small mound overlooking the nest, where could be clearly observed the minutest details of ant-life. The neuters were everywhere to be noticed, but not a single male or female ant. All the work devolved upon the neuters. These were divided into three sets, each set having a definite part to perform in the unexpected drama before it. Some neuters had the exclusive charge of the mature larvæ, others of the pupæ and very young grubs, and the rest of their aphidian herds.