ANT COMMUNITIES 



arose the first individual and the first action of the series? 

 Nevertheless, one must push on, by virtue of his insatiable 

 thirst after the final cause of things, as far as he may. 



The first decided step toward the truth in our study 

 of the phylogeny of the slave-making habit among ants 

 was made by Prof. William M. Wheeler. During the 

 summer of 1904, while studying ants among the Litch- 

 field Hills of Connecticut, Professor Wheeler made the 

 brilliant discovery that the female of Formica difficilis- 

 consodanSj after her marriage-flight, habitually seeks a 

 weak and probably queenless nest of Formica Schaufussi- 

 incerta, and thereupon founds a colony of her own species. 

 The host-commune, the Schaufuss ant, belongs to the 

 group whose native temperament seems to adapt them 

 to serve as auxiliaries, and a depauperate and queenless 

 condition favors the welcoming of a queen, even though 

 an alien. On the other hand, the Consocians female is of 

 characteristically diminutive stature, and thus physically 

 disqualified from the usual role of solitary queens the 

 rearing of an independent commune. Thus mutually 

 adapted for union, an alliance is formed, and the first 

 step of a mixed colony is made. 



Now follows a strange and interesting history whose 

 bearing upon our subject readily appears. The Con- 

 socians queen drops her eggs. The Incerta workers, 

 true to their instinct, care for them and rear them to 

 maturity. Ere long they equal their nurses in number, 

 and soon exceed them. As there is no natural source 

 from which to recruit the ranks of the host-species, in 

 the ordinary course of communal life and service the 

 original founders gradually decrease, until all have died 

 out. There remains then Consocians commune pure and 

 simple. 



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