The parasite, whilst stretching out as far as it can from the body of its host, in quest of food, remains, all the while, attached to the latter by the disc in which its body ends. It can, however, leave one ant larva for another, though Professor Wheeler, to whom we owe this interesting discovery, believes that it does this “with great reluctance, and only under urgent circumstances, such as extreme hunger, the death of the larva to which it is attached, and perhaps, when fully mature, and about to pupate.”[14] So long, indeed, as its original host, on whose body, when quite young, it was probably hatched from the egg, continues well and is well fed, it has no reason to seek farther, since all its wants are provided for. It is not only fed by the worker ants, but shares in any other of the benefits which these may bestow upon the rising generation of the nest. Thus, if they move larvæ, as is customary, to give them change of temperature, and produce the requisite hygienic conditions, the parasite is moved along with them, and it is cleaned also—a still more important advantage possibly—at the same time as they are. At such times the ants never seem to notice the uncouth incubus upon the bodies of their infant sisters, though one would suppose the difficulty would be not to do so. They are, it is true, blind, or nearly so, but it seems strange that their sense of touch, which is no doubt delicate, should not be able to inform them, since the parasite, though small enough, absolutely, is of great size regarded as an excrescence on its host’s body. This probably is the way in which the matter presents itself to the ants, if they think about it at all, for since the two lives are passed constantly together, and are subjected to the same conditions, it is likely that they share one smell between them.