296 MAURICE COLE TANQUARY. 



this species do not keep well in confinement and during the time 

 the experiment was running more than 100 females not used in 

 experiments died, part of them in the colony with their own 

 workers and part of them in a nest by themselves. I am quite 

 sure that at least four or five and probably more of the queens 

 with L. americanus were already adopted or would have been 

 adopted had they not died. In the majority of cases when I 

 removed the dead queen I was unable to find any trace of injury 

 whatever although in a number of cases the body was dis- 

 membered and sometimes eaten. 



The most noticeable feature about the behavior of the latipes 

 female when placed in with a small colony of workers was her 

 desire to be with the brood, although in only one case out of all 

 79 did I see a queen pick up a larva or cocoon. This queen was 

 in a Petri dish with a few workers of L. nearcticus and once when 

 I uncovered the dish she picked up a cocoon and carried it around 

 in her mandibles for about a minute. The queen was always 

 attacked, and in the larger colonies of americanus and in the one 

 of L. umbratns minutiis, very fiercely. I did not see her in any 

 case attempt to defend herself. In the larger colonies she only 

 tried to get away and in the smaller colonies she usually got on 

 the pile of cocoons, while the little workers attacked her and 

 crawled over her large body in their efforts to kill her. Time 

 and again when they succeeded in dragging her away she would 

 return and mount the pile of cocoons. The callows hatching 

 under these conditions would not, of course, be hostile to her 

 and as at this time of the year the callow's were emerging in 

 large numbers there would soon be many workers about her that 

 would accept her as their ow r n queen. Even in the larger colonies 

 a number of workers could often be seen licking the queen while 

 others were attacking her. I will give a few notes on the colonies 

 in w r hich the adopted queens lived, and summarize the others. 



B. 19/8 August 9. I place a beta queen of L. latipes in Petri dish with twelve 



workers of L. americanus and 150 cocoons. 

 Aug. 10. The queen is dead. 

 Aug. 11. I place in another. 

 Aug. 12. She is on the pile of cocoons with a large number of newly hatched 



workers. 

 Aug. 13. Still resting on the cocoons with the callows. 



