1903.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 491 



SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON AN ANT. 

 BY ADELE M. FIELDE. 



In a preceding paper/ I described experiments showing that when 

 pupae and the ant- workers hatching therefrom are maintained in segre- 

 gation, such ants refuse to affiliate with workers of their colony who 

 are forty days or more older than themselves; and that ant-workers 

 thus reared in segregation will not accept a queen much older than 

 their mother. I believe it to be proven that the cause of the hostility 

 of one colony to those of another colony of the same species and variety^ 

 is a difference of contact-odor coincident with difference of age in the 

 individuals composing the colony. The queen-mother alone deter- 

 mining the inherent primitive odor of each of her offspring. 



I recently undertook the herein recorded experiments with a view 

 to ascertaining whether any of the rays of Ught to which the ants are 

 exposed in seeking food so affects their metaboUsm as to produce that 

 difference of odor which is the cause of hostility between colonies of 

 different age. 



On August 21, 1902, I put five queens and 200 workers, all of one 

 colony and without young, into each of five new Fielde nests .^ All 



^ "Notes on an Ant," Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of PhiUt- 

 delphia, December, 1902. 



^ The ants used for the experiments described in that paper and in the present 

 WTiting were Stenamma fulvum piceum. 



' "Portable Ant Nests," Biological Bidle.tin. Vol. 2, No. 2, 1900. An improve- 

 ment suggested by Dr. W. M. Wheeler in the making of these nests may be read 

 about in a note in his paper, "Ethnological Observations on an American Ant," 

 1903. He uses Diamond Cement for joining the glass portions of the nests. 

 Should that cement not be easily obtainable. Major's cement is also better than 

 glue. I used for one year a nest stuck together by Major's cement, and then 

 immersed the nest in water for two Aveeks without loosening the glass parts. 



Dr. Wheeler also suggests the use of mica instead of glass in covering the hall- 

 ways or passages between compartments. I have found celluloid film also better 

 than the glass, and it is tougher than the mica. 



It is better to darken the nest by glueing black cloth over the outside walls 

 rather than b}' painting them, the cloth being more effective and more durable 

 than the paint. 



I also find that if a thin pane of orange-colored glass be used for the roofing, 

 instead of the transparent glass, the ants are little disturbed by the lifting of the 

 opaque outside cover, and that their behavior may then be studied with assur- 

 ance that it is the same as when they were in darkness. 



The ideal ant-nests would, I think, be secured were the patterns of the Fielde 

 nests reproduced in white porcelain. Such nests, topped with Turkish towelling, 

 which can easily be renewed when soiled, and with a roofing of orange-colored 



