Parasitism : organic and social / by Jean Massart and Émile Vandervelde ; translated by William Macdonald ; revised by J. Arthur Thomson.

  • Massart, Jean, 1865-1925.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Parasitism : organic and social / by Jean Massart and Émile Vandervelde ; translated by William Macdonald ; revised by J. Arthur Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    132/144 (page 116)
    1. In illustration of the latter case we need only cite the hygienic précautions resorted to in times of épidémie, more particularly the disinfection and fil- tration of the water supply. The hardening of the surface of the body in insects and crustaceans probably acts as a défensive provision against parasitic attack ; but in both these cases we find that the parasite still finds himself a berth in the membranous région which extends between adjacent segments, and which is indispensable to the mobility of these. In certain défensive partnerships formed between plants and ants, the préventive policy seems as if based upon a quite rational deed of agreement. Thus there are certain large ants in South America (Œcodoma) which are in the habit of ravaging trees and stripping off the leaves. These they carry to the ant-hill, and form with them wliat correspond to mushroom beds, fungi being their chosen food. To fortify themselves against the attack of these devastators, the plants enter into association with a different species of ant. The latter constitute themselves into a bodyguard for the defence of the tree, and receive from it an équiva- lent for these services in the form of board and lodging.1 1 [There is here, as in some other pages of this book, a sug- gestion of conscious or deliberate action on the part of various organisais, which seems to us unwarranted ; but it does not affect the argument.—Tr.]