IO ADELE M. FIELDE. 



Stenamma workers, from the same colony as were these males, 

 were immediately killed. 



Since the males avoid, or are indifferent to, ants of other spe- 

 cies than their own, unless hatched among such species in arti- 

 ficial nests, it appears probable that they discern the specific odor 

 of other ants. But they probably lack the sub-nose that per- 

 ceives the progessive odor of workers. Male ants of various 

 species placed under observation in one of my artificial nests, 

 grouped themselves according to species, but did not quarrel 

 with males of species unlike their own. I infer that the only 

 inherent odor of males is that of their species ; but that they are 

 the medium through which the progressive odor of their female 

 progenitors is transmitted to the egg that produces a female, the 

 progressive odor being latent in the males and reappearing in 

 their female descendants. Only the egg receiving a spermato- 

 zoon would produce a female, and this female would be endowed 

 with her paternal grandmother's tendencies in progressive odor, 

 the progressive odor thus manifesting itself only in the female 

 line of descent. The fact that the worker progeny of a queen, 

 sequestered from the pupa stage, will receive their queen-mother 

 or the queen-mother's sister with equal pleasure, indicates simi- 

 larity of odor in the product of the same queen's impregnated 



eggs. 



I venture to predict that there will be found in female ants 

 secretory glands or organs that are wanting or are rudimentary 

 in the male, and that these organs are the producers of the pro- 

 pressive odor. There must be in both males and females secre- 

 tory glands or organs producing the specific odor which is com- 

 mon to both sexes. These diverse organs might be identified 

 through the possession of both sets by the female and of a single 

 set in the male. It is also probable that the male lacks the 

 glands that secrete the scent whereby the female lays down her 

 individual path from the nest, and he may also lack the sub-nose 

 which discerns this path-scent. The male seems to be unable to 

 lay a path, and, in a change of domicile by the colony, he is car- 

 ried bodily by the females to the new nest. It is through his 

 appreciation of the specific odor and his lack of perception of the 



