ADOPTION OF QUEENS BY ALIEN SPECIES. 30 1 



B. 28/3. 12 workers, and brood of L. americanus. 



B. 28/4. 6 workers and a few larvae and pupae of L. americanus. 



B. 28/3. 100 workers, and cocoons of L. americanus. 



B. 28/6. 100 workers, and cocoons of L. americanus. 



B. 28/7. 75 workers, I winged queen and many ocoons of L. americanus. 



B. 28 18. 12 workers, no brood of L. inter jectus. 



B. 28!$. 25 workers, and brood of L. americanus. 



B. 28(10. 25 workers and 5 winged queens of L. nearticus. 



B, 28/11. 24 workers, and cocoons of L. americanus. 



B. 28/12. 100 workers and many cocoons and young larvae of L. americanus. 



B. 28/13. 12 workers, and cocoons of L. americanus. 



B. 28/14. 24 workers, and cocoons of L. brevicornis. 



B. 28/13. 50 workers, and cocoons of L. nearticus. 



B. 28/16. 30 workers and a number of cocoons of L. americanus. 



The queen of this species is very active and very timid. I 

 did not see her attempt to defend herself in any case but always 

 tried to escape and by her active movements she was usually able 

 to get away from the workers for quite a while. When caught, 

 however, she usually succumbed in a much shorter time than 

 was the case with the other species with which I worked. A few 

 of them died within an hour or so after being placed in, others 

 living for several days. Out of all these experiments I got but 

 one case of adoption. I will give a few notes from that experi- 

 ment. 



B. 2S&. 

 Aug. 18 3.30 P.M. I place a queen of L. umbratus var. minutus in a Petri dish 



with 8 workers and a large number of pupa? of L. americanus. The workers 



attack her; she does not defend herself but tries to escape from them. 

 Aug. 19 9.05 A.M. She is running around by herself. A worker attacks her 



for a little while but she gets away. 



Aug. 20 9.30 A.M. She is resting on the cocoons with the workers. 

 Aug. 21 9.00 A.M. The same. 



n.oo A.M. Still on the cocoons with the workers and seems to be entirely 

 immune from attack. About a dozen callows have hatched. 

 Aug. 22. The same. 

 Aug. 23. The same. 

 Aug. 24. There are about 40 or 50 workers in the nest now. The queen stays 



with them all the time. 

 Sept. 12. Most of the cocoons have hatched. The queen has been fully adopted. 



Although one adoption out of 88 attempts is a small per- 

 centage, yet I think the ease with which this queen was adopted 

 is very suggestive, and taken altogether with the facts mentioned 

 above, namely the sporadic occurrence of the species, the very 

 large number of females produced, the small size of the females, 



