ant, and, increasing rapidly to a droplet, was re-imbibed by the expectant little one. “The latter,” says Professor Wheeler, “then dismounted, ran to another _Myrmica_, climbed on its back, and repeated the very same performance. Again it took toll, and passed on to still another _Myrmica_.”[56] Up to the present the attention of Professor Wheeler had been concentrated on the doings of this one individual, but now, turning his attention to other parts of the nest, he “observed that nearly all the _Leptothorax_ workers were similarly employed. In one corner a number of _Myrmica_ workers had formed a circle about a few of their small larvæ, which they were cleansing and feeding. A _Leptothorax_ soon found its way to this cluster, and stepped from the back of one ant to that of another, lavishing a shampoo on each in turn, and apparently filling its crop with the liquid contributions thus solicited.” The above method of obtaining food appears to be peculiar to these ant parasites. Beetles, for example, solicit it either by taps or touches with the antennæ—which is a similar one indeed, but does not go so far nor involve a ride—or else by stroking the face of their host with their fore-feet. Other species of ants, when soliciting food from one another or demanding it from their slaves, employ a more or less similar method, whilst the _Lepismid_ that we have before spoken of is a thief pure and simple. Licking seems to be the personal discovery of _Leptothorax_, and being licked the peculiar privilege of _Myrmica brevinodis_. That it is a valued one is clear, but the price asked for it is not always forthcoming, possibly because there is not always anything to forthcome. On such barren occasions _Leptothorax_ makes the best of a bad job, and dismounting from its first love, runs about looking for another.