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→as was first observed by Huber, their
sweet excretion to ants: that they do so voluntarily, the
facts show. I removed all the ants from a group of about a dozen aphides on a
and prevented their attendance during several hours. After this interval, I felt sure that the aphides would want to
→excrete. I watched them for some time through a lens, but not one excreted; I then tickled and stroked them with a hair in the same
as well as I could, as the ants do with their antennæ; but not one excreted.
I allowed an ant to visit them, and it immediately seemed, by its eager way of running about, to be well aware what a rich flock it had discovered; it then began to play with its antennæ on the abdomen first of one aphis and then of another; and
as soon as it felt the antennæ, immediately lifted up its abdomen and excreted a limpid drop of sweet juice, which was eagerly devoured by the ant. Even the quite young aphides behaved in this manner, showing that the action was instinctive, and not the result of experience. It is certain, from the observations of Huber, that the aphides show no dislike to the ants: if the latter be not
they are at last compelled to eject their excretion. But as the excretion is extremely viscid, it is
a convenience to the aphides to have it removed;
therefore probably
do not
excrete
→for the sole
good of the ants. Although
→there is no evidence
that any animal
→OMIT
performs an action for the exclusive good of another
→of a distinct
species, yet each
tries to take advantage of the instincts of others, as each takes advantage of the weaker bodily structure of
So
→in some few cases,
certain instincts cannot be considered as absolutely perfect; but as details on this and other such points are not indispensable, they may be here passed over.
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