Vol. IV. March, ipoj. No. 4 



BIOLOGICAL BULLETIN. 



DIMORPHIC QUEENS IN AN AMERICAN ANT 

 (LASIUS LATIPES WALSH). 1 



\V. M. WHEELER AND J. F. McCLENDON. 



On the afternoon of September 17 of the current year the 

 senior author had occasion to witness the nuptial flights of several 

 species of Lasins in an open wood near Rockford, Illinois. These 

 flights occurred almost simultaneously from mound nests of 

 Lasins nigcr var. auicricanns, L. clai'igcr and L. latipcs. The first 

 species is ubiquitous in all open country in the Northern States, 

 especially where the soil is sandy or loamy. Owing to the dingy 

 color of the workers, males and females, and the relatively small 

 size of the colonies, the nuptial flight of this species offers nothing 

 of special interest or beauty. It is quite otherwise with some 

 of the yellow Lasins, of which at least eight species are known 

 to occur in the United States, namely : L. apJiidicola Walsh, 

 speadivcntris Emery, brcvicornis Emery, rnyops Forel, intcrjcctns 

 Mayr, claviger Roger, latipcs \Valsh, and Murphyi Forel. The 

 last is known only from North Carolina and Colorado. L. intcr- 

 jt'ctus, ap/iidicola, claviger and latipcs build large mound nests, 

 often a foot or more in diameter and several inches high, either 

 in open grassy places or about the bases of rotting stumps. 

 These mounds are shot through with living grass and covered 

 with little openings for the ingress and egress of the ants. 

 L. latipes in some localities prefers to build its nests under rather 

 large stones. This is the case at Colebrook, Connecticut, for 

 example. Unlike L. nigcr and its varieties the yellow species of 

 the.. genus appear to be nocturnal in their habits and L. inyops 

 largely subterranean. At any rate the v/orkers of these various 

 species are not seen to leave the nests in the day-time except 

 during the nuptial flight of the males and virgin females. 



1 Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Texas. 

 No. 46. 



149 



