Show WONDERFUL L INSECTS plant lico lice that are used as cows by ants Af african rilean aphids inhabit rig fig trees and distin water fr from th abo sap or from the atmosphere almost every plant has its peculiar aphis or plant louse says the st louis republic creatures which nature has endowed with wonderful powers of reproduction among these odd insects there maybe may he from twenty to fifty generations erat ions in each year each gene generation generate rati on capable of producing others A distinguished naturalist has given figures to prove that one pair of aphides in five generations all of which could be brought into the world in less than ten te n days clays would have descendants to the number of ants although they cannot also be classed as the most wonderful insect of f crea creation t ion are certai certainly illy the wisest they use a certain species of aphis alibis as their cows the ant finds the aphis alibis with his proboscis pushed entirely through h the bark baric of some tender plant slowly sucking its lifes blood sap reason it cannot be properly called palled by any other name teaches t the h e ant that if the aphis is irritated he will void this digested sap straightway mr ir ant marches arches in up to the helpless aphis and proceeds to irritate the poor creature with his fcc feelers lers and forthwith the eap begins to flow from two bristle like tubes which are situated near the tail end of the aphis this flow of sap is what the ant had reason to expect and as he is very fond of it he begins to greedily suck it up livingstone tells of a species of aphis which inhabits the fig trees of africa which constantly distill water until it forms in great puddles on the ground underneath there seems to be some contention among naturalists natura lists as to whether this insect distills its water from the top of the plant which it infests ora from the atmosphere livingstone ing stone found some of them at work oil on a castor bean plant and set about making an experiment when first surprised at their work distillation was going on at the rate of one drop every sixty seven seconds or about five and a half tablespoonfuls every twenty four hours lie he destroyed th the e bark of the plant below them and although it is known that sap must come from the earth they were actually distilling a day before it he c then gir girdled d the plant so deeply that tha t it dried and broke off still the little colony of insect wonders kept at woric work regularly distilling one d drop rop every five seconds while another c olony colony on a green twig only managed to distill a drop every seventeen seconds there are many other curious points about aphides such as the idea that they are the progeny of ants that they will turn to ants anta or that ants will turn to aphides common errors |