304 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OF [1883. 



distinctions are a permanent feature of the ant economy ; and 

 while it is perhaps not permitted one to say that they are not caused 

 by differences in amount or character of the nurture given in the 

 larval state, 3'et this did not seem at all probable to the speaker. 

 The fiict that, in some genera, the workers have also remark- 

 able differences in structure (as of the head, for example, in 

 Pheidole and Pogonomyrmex crudelis) goes to show that differen- 

 tiation into castes is regulated by something other than the food- 

 supply. 



The above observations are valuable as proving that the 

 females of Camponotus, when fertilized, go solitary, and after 

 dispossessing themselves of their wings, begin the work of 

 founding a new famih'. This work they carry on until enough 

 workers are reared to attend to the active duties of the formicary, 

 as tending and feeding the young, enlarging the domicile, etc. 

 After that, the queens generally limit their duty to the laj'ing of 

 eggs, and, as the speaker had elsewhere fully described,^ are 

 continually guarded and restricted in their movements by a 

 circle of attendant workers, or "court." 



The above facts are further illustrated and enlarged by a series 

 of observations made by Mr. Edward Fotts, in accordance with 

 the speaker's suggestions and directions. On or about June 16, 

 Mr. Potts captured a queen of C. pennsylvanicus running acro.-s his 

 parlor floor, late at night. He placed it in a bottle, but forgot to 

 examine it until five days later (21st and 22d June), when he was 

 surprised to find that the ant was alive, and had laid six or eight 

 eggs in the otherwise empty bottle ; which eggs, in their various 

 stages of development, she continued to attend for about fifty 

 daj^s. He fed the ant by dropping into her bottle a pinch of 

 white sugar, which he moistened every evening with a drop or two 

 of water ; at which times she quit her otherwise unremitting- 

 watch over the eggs and the larvas, to press her labium for a 

 moment into the sweet fluid, her labial and maxillary palps 

 meanwhile rapidly vibrating with pleasure. The egg-laying was, 

 from the first, very deliberate ; one or two eggs were added to the 

 original stock from time to time, until about the 15th August, 

 making the highest number counted, of all ages, nineteen. 



He did not observe the date of the first hatching, but these 

 larvjie, at first no larger than the eggs, and only distinguishable 

 upon close observation \>y the slight grooves between the body 

 segments and the ill-defined head, gradually at first, and after- 

 wai'ds more rapidly, reached finally a length of about one-quarter 

 inch and began to spin their cocoons. On the morning of July 

 20, the first was surrounded by a single layer of web, but could 

 still be seen working inside it. By evening the cocoon was too 

 opaque to be seen through. On the morning of the 21st the 



' Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1879, p. 140; "Agricultural Ants of Texas," 

 p. 144 ; "Ilouey and Occident Ants," p. 41. 



