On the origin & metamorphosis of insects / by Sir John Lubbock.

  • Lubbock, John, Sir, 1834-1913.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin & metamorphosis of insects / by Sir John Lubbock. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    <•] had not a slave to feed them. I found, however, that I could keep them in life and health for months if I gave them a slave for an hour or two in a week to clean and feed them. Ants also keep a variety of beetles and other insects in their nests. That they have some reason for this seems clear, because they readily attack any unwel- come intruder ; but what that reason is, we do not yet know. If these insects are to be regarded as the domestic animals of the ants, then we must admit that the ants possess more domestic animals than we do. Some indeed of these beetles produce a secretion which is licked by the ants like the honeydew ; there are others, however, which have not yet been shown to be of any use to the ants, and yet are rarely, if ever, found, excepting in ants’ nests. M. Lespes, who regards these insects as true domestic animals, has recorded1 some interesting observations on the relations between one of them (Claviger Duvalii) and the ants (Lasins niger) with which- it lives. This species of Claviger is never met with except in ants’ nests, though on the other hand there are' many communities of Lasius which possess none of these beetles ; and M. Lespes found that when he placed Clavigers in a nest of ants which had none of their own, the beetles were immediately killed and eaten, the ants themselves being on the other hand kindly received by other communities of the same species. He concludes from these observa- tions that some communities of ants are more ad- vanced in civilization than others ; the suggestion is 1 “ Sur la Domestication des Clavigers par Ies Fourmis.” Bull, de la Soc. d’Anthropologie de Paris, 1868, p. 315.