THE MATING OF LASIUS NIGER L. 339 



times obliquely, and disappear above the two-story houses. 

 Some of these females caused no disturbance of the dance; 

 others attracted towards them one or more of the participants 

 which accompanied them beyond the range of human eyes. 

 Somewhere in the air mating would occur and the female, no 

 longer a virgin, would return to earth. I did not have the 

 pleasure of observing a pair at the moment of copulation; but 

 I captured several of the brides as they descended; each with 

 her miniature husband attached, appendage like, to the tip 

 of her abdomen. 



The altered appearance caused by the clinging of the male, 

 made it easy to recognize a newly mated female afar off. Several 

 were followed until they settled on the plants of my garden. 

 After alighting and before the male had detached himself, the 

 female, by means of vigorous strokes of her third pair of legs, 

 would break off the wings of first one side and then of the other. 

 These wings were for the honey-moon flight; since the females 

 of this species mate but once in a life time, they were cast aside 

 as useless encumbrances. Those wings were badges of virginity; 

 now that she had become a matron, she discarded those emblems 

 of maidenhood. 



What a feast these marriage festivities furnished the insect- 

 feeding ants of the community! Around the outskirts of each 

 band of excited ants, Formica scouts were capturing the male 

 stragglers and dragging them alive to their nests. All over the 

 ground beneath the dancing males, active foragers of these 

 same species of Formica were capturing such ants as happened 

 to fall to the earth. Even the large females became prey of 

 these alert ants. Often two and even three ants were observed 

 dragging off the same female. 



At the beginning of these observations, the sun was shining 

 brightly; later the clouds became so thick that not a ray of sun- 

 light could reach the earth. The prenuptial dance and the 

 mating continued, in both sunshine and shadow, until about 

 the close of day. Then the dancers gradually vanished until 

 all 'that remained of the countless multitudes were a few strag- 

 gling males and an occasional female. Even after the last of 

 these males had disappeared, an occasional lone female would 

 corkscrew upwards through the air. Poor belated virgins! Too 

 late to perform the mission of their sex! Some, if not all, haunt- 



