436 WILLIAM M. MANN 



that did mature were immediately killed and eaten, or fed to 

 the other larvae. During this time several hundred niger workers 

 reached maturity. In another similarly composed colony the 

 results were the same. During four years no males were pro- 

 duced. A third nest again containing a queen of L. umbratus 

 and niger workers, with no brood at the start, produced only 

 niger workers, normal in all respects except that they were 

 somewhat undersized. Twelve workers were carefully dissected 

 in order to ascertain if a receptaculum seminis v/as present. 

 This was not found, so the experiment confirms that of Reichen- 

 bach and shows that in parthogenetic reproduction by worker 

 ants, workers as well as males may result. 



Crawley (12) found in England a colony of the parasitic ant 

 Anergates atratulus in a Tetramorium caespitum nest. No sex- 

 ual forms of the latter species were present. The male Aner- 

 gates is wingless, and copulation takes place in the nest. The 

 queens kept by Crawley removed their wings shortly after copu- 

 lation, and made no attempt to leave the colony, but each 

 queen seized a Tetramorium worker by the antennae and kept 

 hold of it for hours. This habit may be useful in getting the 

 queen into a strange nest, and may have for its object the acqui- 

 sition of the odor of the Tetramorium. A colony of the latter 

 ant that had adopted a newly fertilized Anergates queen, killed off 

 all the sexual torms of its own species in the nest, including two 

 dealated queens. 



Donisthorpe (13) found colonies of Leptothorax acervorum and 

 Myrmica laevinodis beneath the same stone. When the nest was 

 disturbed they showed no antagonism toward each other, and 

 if they picked up each other's larvae or pupae they put them 

 down again. Small larvae of the fly Microdon mutabilis kept in 

 an artificial nest with Formica fusca grew to a large size without 

 being fed by the ants or feeding on the honey provided for 

 them. When the ants moved, the Microdon followed them very 

 slowly. It is evident that they feed on the droppings and pellets 

 rejected from the buccal chamber of the ants. Antennophorus 

 uhlmanni, which lives attached to Lasius umbratus, was observed 

 to move to one side of the ant's head in order to permit it to 

 feed. 



Donisthorpe and Crawley (14) made a number of experiments 

 on the founding of colonies by queens of Lasius fuliginosus. It 



