500 ANTS. 



Adlcrz and Wasmann have made some experiments with a view to 

 ascertaining the method whereby the female Ancryatcs becomes asso- 

 ciated with the Tetramorium. Adlerz in Sweden placed several unfer- 

 tilized .lucnjatcs queens in a strange nest of the host species. They 

 moved about aiming the workers as if unperceived. Nearly the same 

 results were obtained on placing unfertilized Anergates in a normal 

 colony containing a Tetramorium queen. He also placed several larvae, 

 pup;e and male and female imagines of Anergatcs in a normal Tetra- 

 morium colony which was living in an artificial nest. In every case 

 the strangers were almost at once amicably received. Similar observa- 

 tions were made by Wasmann in Holland. He found that strange 

 Tetriimoriitm workers did not in the least injure the male and female 

 Anergates, whereas they killed without mercy a number of Strong\lo- 

 g nu th us tcstacens males and females which he placed in the nest. 



The experiments of Adlerz and Wasmann were not carried far 

 enough to throw any light on the permanent adoption of the Anergates 

 and the fate of the Tetramorium queen. It now seems probable that 

 the latter insect is killed by her own workers soon after the colony is 

 invaded by the parasitic queen. Since the publication of Santschi's 

 notes on U'hccleriella, renewed observations on young Anergates queens 

 in the presence of alien Tetramorium colonies, and under natural con- 

 ditions, have become a desideratum. June 6, 1907, at 2 P. M., while 

 collecting ants near Vaud, in the very meadow in which Forel as a 

 very young man made many of his classical observations on Formica 

 siingitinea, Polyergus, St'rongylognathus tcstaeeus and other species of 

 his " Fourmis de la Suisse," I discovered a medium-sized Tetramorium 

 colony from which female Anergates were escaping in considerable 

 numbers. The nest was around the roots of a plantain, and the females 

 issued one by one from the entrances, climbed the leaves to their tips 

 and Mew away in all directions over the sun-lit grass. At 3.30 P. M. 

 Professor Forel joined me and we excavated the nest with great care. 

 It contained, besides the obese mother queen of Anergates and several 

 thousand Tetramorium workers, more than a thousand winged queens, 

 a few hundred of the pupa-like males, several pupae and a few larvae 

 of the parasitic species. In the galleries of the nest dozens of couples 

 were united in the act of mating. The Tetramorium workers picked 

 up the single males and hurried away with them, but they paid little 

 attention to the females. The colony was placed in a bag and on the 

 following day used for experiments on Tetramorium colonies in Pro- 

 fessor Forel's garden at Chigny. On opening the bag I found several 

 of the Anergates in copula, but most of the females had either lost their 

 wings or were ready to drop them at the slightest touch. Eight Tetra- 



