3O8 MAURICE COLE TANQUARY 



mation is the facultative adoption of the queen by workers of 

 the vsame species, the second the obligatory adoption of the queen 

 by workers of the same species, and third the obligatory adoption 

 of the queen by workers of another species. Perhaps the last 

 species in which one would look for traces of even the first steps 

 toward parasitism would be our dominant species L. niger var. 

 americamis, since it is well known that the queens of this species 

 are able to extablish colonies independently. Workers from one 

 colony of this species are always very hostile to those belonging 

 to another colony and still more so towards queens from another 

 colony, yet, out of eight attempts I succeeded in getting one 

 young fertilized and dealated queen adopted by a colony of 

 L. americanus consisting of about three dozen workers, six cocoons 

 and a number of very small larvae. It is therefore very likely 

 that many of the queens of americanus establish their colonies 

 with the aid of w r orkers either of the same or of a different 

 colony. Thus we see that even in our most dominant species we 

 may find the first two steps toward parasitism. It is easity seen, 

 therefore, that there is still a vast amount of work to be done 

 before the last word can be said upon the interrelations of the 

 different species of ants. 



In conclusion I wish to thank Professor W. M. Wheeler, under 

 whose direction the work was done, for his many helpful sug- 

 gestions while the experiments were being conducted and for 

 reviewing my manuscript. 1 



1 The colonies containing the adopted queens were left at the Bussey Institu- 

 tion and Mr. J. W. Chapman, who was kind enough to care for them, wrote me 

 on November 25, that in each case the adopted queen was treated just as though 

 she were -the rightful queen, so that there is no question but that the adoption 

 was complete. 



M. C. T. 



