THE COLONY FOUNDING OF ACANTHOMYOPS 

 (DENDROLASIUS) FULIGINOSUS LATR. 



HORACE DONISTHORPE F.Z.S., F.E.S., ETC. 

 PUTNEY, ENGLAND. 



Mons. R. Stumper ('20), having recently recorded the discovery 

 of three isolated fuliyinosus females in cells under stones, con- 

 siders that these facts alone diminish the probability that the man- 

 ner of starting colonies adopted by the fitligiuosus is the dependent 

 one, and that further investigation may prove this. We are per- 

 sonally of the opinion that the colony- founding habits of this ant 

 are now well known and thoroughly established, not only by dis- 

 coveries in the field, but by exhaustive experiments carried out in 

 the laboratory. We propose to review the entire evidence on the 

 subject in the order of date on which the various records and dis- 

 coveries have been made ; and to deal, therefore, with Mons. 

 Stumper's remarks at the end of the paper. 



Donisthorpe ('97) records that he found at Lymington a large 

 colony of A. (D.) fuliginosus nesting in a hollow tree, and that a 

 colony of A. (Chthonolasms) flai'us was living in the same nest, 

 both species coming in and going out together. With our present 

 knowledge we know that it would be impossible for fuliginosus 

 and flat' us to live together, and that instead of the latter ant the 

 species must have been umbratus or mi.vtits. 



De Lannoy ('08) writes that in 1904 he found at Knoche-sur- 

 Mer in Belgium a few workers of niivtus living in a large colony 

 of fuliginosns, and in 1906 he again found several similar colonies. 

 He suggested as an explanation that the fuliginosns had stolen the 

 larvae and pupae from a colony of ini.vtus which they had attacked, 

 and that a few of the latter's brood, which had not been devoured, 

 had been reared in the nest of the former ant. 



Forel ('08) and Emery ('08), when commenting on de Lan- 

 noy 's suggestion, expressed the view that it was a case similar to 

 those in the Formica groups where the females have lost the power 

 of founding their colonies unaided, and that a female fuliginosus 



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