BREEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH BREMUS QUEENS. 333 



Another bimaculatus queen and two workers w r ere confined 

 together on May 26. The first eggs were laid on June 5, and the 

 first worker emerged on June 29, whereupon the colony was 

 given complete liberty. On July 17, this colony consisted of the 

 queen and 23 workers, a number of queens and males being pro- 

 duced later. The colony had completely died out by August-15- 



The nesting habits and disposition of this species have been 

 dealt with in two other papers ('22, '226). 



II. Bremns impatiens Cresson. 



After several queens of Bremus impatiens had killed each other, 

 a queen of this species was confined alone on May 20. By May 

 27, she had constructed an egg-cell and oviposited, and on the 

 following day she proceeded to build a honey-pot, all of this 

 work being done without the assistance of workers. On May 31, 

 June 2, and June 3, respectively, three workers of Bremus im- 

 patiens the first obtainable were given to her, and by June 

 4, another honey-pot and two additional batches of eggs were 

 present in the nest. On June 9, the first batch of larvae eight 

 in number were almost full-grown, and ten days later the first 

 worker emerged, whereupon the flight-hole was left open perma- 

 nently. When this colony was examined on August 15, it consisted 

 of the queen, 122 workers, and a considerable quantity of brood. 

 The colony broke up toward the end of September, after having 

 produced a large number of males and young queens. 



The nesting habits and temper of this species have been dis- 

 cussed in several other papers ('22, '220,, '226). 



III. Bremus perplexus Cresson. 



A queen and two workers of this species were confined on June 

 6, and another queen and three workers on June n. Both 

 nuclei began nest-building on the day on which they were con- 

 fined, but on June 17, queen No. 2 and one of her three workers 

 were found dead in the nest, whereupon the remaining two work- 

 ers and brood were given to queen No. I. The larvae grew rapidly, 

 and on June 29, twenty-three days after queen No. I was con- 

 fined the first worker emerged. 1 Several others hatched during 



1 This confirms the observations of Sladen ('12, p. 31) and Prison ('18, p. 47), 

 who found that it takes from 22 to 25 days for the workers to emerge, from the time 

 the eggs are laid. Hoffer's (82-83, P- 2 &) claim that the development of the workers, 

 from egg to adult, takes a month, is therefore incorrect. 



