466 ANTS. 



hastily took up a cocoon and tried to conceal it. July 16, 7 A. M., five 

 callow workers had hatched during the night. One larva had been 

 partially eaten by the female. At 1.40 she was surprised in the act of 

 opening a cocoon. She used her fore and middle feet to hold the 

 cocoon while she tore a large, elliptical hole with her mandibles in the 

 portion of its wall overlying the concave ventral surface of the pupa. 

 Through this hole the worker was later drawn after it had thrust out 

 its antennas and legs. Whenever the nest was uncovered throughout 

 this and the following of the first days, the female could nearly always 

 be detected in the act of either opening a cocoon or removing the pupal 

 envelope from a callow just released. By the afternoon of July 16 

 some of the callows began to assist the female in releasing their sister 

 workers so that the number of callows now began to increase rapidly. 

 On the morning of July 17 there were 19 altogether, by 5 P. M. 24, by 

 7.30 A. M., July 18, 30, and by 7.30 A. M., July 19, 50. On the 

 following days the numbers ran thus : July 20, about 60 ; July 21, about 

 75; July 22, about 100; July 23 and 24, about 130. This completed 

 the callow brood, as some of the cocoons failed to hatch. The female 

 took the greatest interest in her black family, and they bestowed on her 

 every attention. Soon after they had begun to feed and clean her 

 another marked change supervened in her instincts. Instead of 

 defending herself and brood when the nest was uncovered she slunk 

 away, or at any rate attempted to conceal herself among the mass of 

 workers. She had become highly photophobic and behaved exactly 

 like the old queens, that invariably make for the galleries whenever the 

 nest is disturbed or illuminated. This experiment was concluded and 

 the ants were liberated in the garden on July 26. 



The above experiment shows very clearly that the female ntbiciinda, 

 when placed with a small number of subsericea workers and their pupae, 

 displays a chain of instincts that result in her gaining possession of the 

 latter. To all appearances she is quite ready to be amicably adopted by 

 the subsericea, but when received with marked hostility, as is probably 

 almost invariably the case, her animosity is very quickly kindled, and 

 she slays the subsericea with all possible dispatch, thus manifesting 

 instincts very similar to those of her own workers when engaged in a 

 dulotic raid. Owing to her powerful mandibles and closely knit frame 

 she is always a match for several workers and may kill as many as 

 twenty-one of these in a very short time. Before she has killed them 

 all, however, she becomes much interested in their brood, eagerly col- 

 lects and secretes it in some favorable corner and guards it with open 

 mandibles till the callows are ready to hatch. These she skilfully 

 divests of their cocoons and pupal envelopes. Their advent in consid- 



