ARTIFICIAL MIXED NESTS OF ANTS. 



ADELE M. FIELDE. 



Mixed nests of ants are rarely found in nature, and the ants 

 associated in such nests are always of the same subfamily if not 

 of the same genus. 1 



There are two ways of causing ants of different genera, or even 

 of different subfamilies, to live peacefully together. One way is 

 that of destroying the sense of smell in the ants by depriving 

 them of a portion of the antennae. Forel discovered, in the 

 seventies, that the funicles were the organs of smell. I have 

 had representatives of three subfamilies of ants, all without funi- 

 cles, living amicably together through several consecutive weeks, 

 although the members of the group varied in size, from the huge 

 Camponotus pennsylvanicus to the small Stcnamma fulvuin ; in 

 form, from the shark-like Stigmatouima pallipcs to the chubby 

 Lasius umbratus ; in color, from the jet-black Crcinastogaster 

 lineolata to the amber-yellow Lasius latipes ; and in character, from 

 the truculent Myrmica rnbra to the patient Formica snbscricca. 



In 1901, \\s\v\<gSteuamviafulvum for the experiments, I located 2 

 the appreciation of the nest-aura in the distal segment of the 

 funicle, the eleventh ; that of the colony, in the tenth segment ; 

 that of the individual track, in the ninth segment ; that of the 

 inert young, in the eighth and seventh segments. I have lately 

 located the appreciation of the odor of enemies in the sixth and 

 fifth segments. 



I cut off the five distal segments of the antennae from seven 

 queens 3 of Steuamma fulvnm, seven queens of Crcmastogastcr 

 lineolata, five queens of Mynnica rnbra, five queens of Lasius 



1 E. Wasmann, " Die zusammengesetzten Nester und gemischten Kolonien der 

 Ameisen," 1891. William Morton Wheeler, " The Compound and Mixed Nests of 

 American Ants," American Naturalist, 1901. 



2 A. M. Fielde, "Further Study of an Ant," Proceedings of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, November, 1901. 



3 Among the Myrraicine ants, queens only were used for these experiments, because 

 of the abnormal irritability of myrmicine workers lacking parls of the antennae. 



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