1 88 ANTS. 



M \nnica nujimnlis have tlie instinct of bringing up larv;e and the 

 power of founding communities." 



McCook (i 88347 ) published several careful observations by Edward 

 I'otts to show that young females of Camponotus pennsylvanicus 

 " when fertilized, go solitary, and after dispossessing themselves of 

 their wings, begin the work of founding a new family. This work 

 thev carry on until enough workers are reared to attend to the 

 active duties of the formicary, as tending and feeding the young, en- 

 larging the domicile, etc. After that, the queens generally limit their 

 duty to the laying of eggs." 



To any one who has given even a little attention to the insect life of 

 our northern woods, it must seem strange that the founding of colonies 

 by this ant should not have been recorded till 1883. Certainly no obser- 

 vation could be more easily made, for in many localities it is hardly 

 possible to tear a strip of bark from an old log without finding one or 

 more females of C. pennsylvanicus or of the allied varieties ferrugineus 

 and noveboracensis, each in her little cell brooding over a few eggs, 

 larvae, cocoons or minim workers. Usually the cell is carefully ex- 

 cavated just under the loose bark in the decayed wood, but where pine 

 logs are abundant these females often prefer to take possession of the 

 deserted pupal cavities of a longicorn beetle (Rhagium lincatnni ). 

 These cavities are surrounded by a regular wall of wood fibers ar- 

 ranged like the twigs in a bird's nest (Fig. 105). 



"Within more recent years the observations of Lincecum, Lubbock, 

 McCook, and Potts have been repeatedly confirmed by continental 

 authors. Blochmann (1885), Forel (19020"), Janet (1904), von Buttel- 

 Reepen (19050), Emery (10040") and Mrazek (1906) have all pub- 

 lished interesting notes on colony formation by isolated females of ants 

 belonging to the common genera Mynnica, Cremastogastcr, Formica. 

 Lashts and Camponotus. 



On more than one occasion during the past ten years I myself have 

 been able, both in the field and in the laboratory, to test the truth of 

 these observations. In fact, a catalogue of the North American species, 

 in which I have seen evidence of the founding of colonies by isolated 

 females, would comprise nearly all of our common ants. I have ob- 

 served it in members of all the subfamilies except the Dorylinae. Even 

 the Ponerinae, which I at one time supposed to be an exception, con- 

 form to the general rule, for I have found isolated females of Odon- 

 tomachus darns and h&matodes in the act of establishing their formi- 

 caries. During May, 1895, I observed an unusually striking case of 

 colony formation by queens of the Californian harvester ( /'in/oiioinyr- 

 inc.r ctilifoniicus) on the edge of the Mojave Desert. This recalls the 



