COLONY FOUNDING OF ACANTHOMYOPS FULIGINOSUS. 179 



wings, were introduced into the nii.i'to-nmbralus nest, when they 

 were very little attacked and completely accepted the same day. 

 The one died on October 12, but the other has been treated by the 

 workers as their queen, having been fed, cleaned, and caressed by 

 them, and is still alive in this nest she laid her first eggs on July 

 12, 1914. As the females of fuliginosus are only slightly larger 

 than the workers, and as their fertility is delayed for so long a 

 period, it is clear that they are unable to found colonies unaided ; 

 they are hyper-temporary social parasites, since, as will be seen 

 presently, wnbratus and nii.rtus are temporary social parasites of 

 niger and alienus." 



Donisthorpe ('15^) recorded the death on August 29, 1915, of 

 the above-mentioned fuliginosus queen which had been accepted 

 on August n, 1912, into a colony of mixto-umbratus. The work- 

 ers in this nest had all gradually died off, and a large number of 

 fresh uinbratus workers were obtained from Woking and put into 

 the nest. These accepted the old fuliginosus female at once. She 

 was very weak and died a few days afterwards, but not from 

 injuries. The workers had never shown any animosity toward 

 her, treating her from the first as their queen. 



Donisthorpe ('16), having been left with the above-mentioned 

 queenless uinbratus nest, obtained a number of virgin fuliginosus 

 females from a colony of that ant nesting in the ground under a 

 broom bush at Weybridge. On September 3. 1915, he removed 

 the wings from one of these females and introduced her into the 

 observation nest containing the uinbratus workers. She ran about 

 among the uinbratus workers, tapping them with her antennje ; she 

 was not attacked and soon gained the last (dark, damp) chamber 

 of the nest, which contained the bulk of the uinbratus. She ap- 

 peared to have been accepted at once and was saluted, cleaned, and 

 fed by some of the workers. She was treated as their queen, and 

 was not attacked until September 7, when, the nest having been 

 left in the sun, some of the workers began to attack her and pull 

 her about. The nest was placed in a cool, dark place, and by 

 September 19 she was once more thoroughly accepted as queen; 

 she has not been attacked since, and on December 19 she was sur- 

 rounded by a large court of attendant ants. Wheeler first demon- 

 strated that if the wings be removed from a virgin Formica female 



