THE PONERINE ANTS. 



231 



This sex, moreover, does not occupy a privileged position in the com- 

 munity, like the females of the higher ants. She is not attended by a 

 body-guard of workers as she moves about the nest but seems to receive 

 only the same attentions as the workers. And as the latter are often 

 fertile, there is little to distinguish the queen from the other members 



FIG. 130. \Yorkers and winged females of Stigmatomnia pullipes, with cocoons X 2. 

 (.Photograph by J. G. Hubbard & O. S. Strong.) 



of the colony. This is true at least of the species of Odontoinachns, 

 Stii/niatoinina, Pachycondyla and Poncra which I have studied. Cook 

 says, however, that the queens of Ectatoiiiuia tnbcrcnlainni, " even 



