Pec, 1909.] Wheeler : Observations on European Ants. 179 



workers were fairly numerous — 1:4 or 5 Tctrarnorium — and there 

 were many male and female larvae and pupae. I was unable to find 

 a fertile queen of either species. 



2. August 13. In the same locality I found a second colony of 

 large size and extending under several contiguous stones. There was 

 about I alpinus to every 3-5 Tetramorium, with many male and female 

 larvae and pupae of the former. No fertile queens could be detected. 



3. August 14. In the same locality a small Tetramorium colony 

 was found containing a number of alpinus pupae of all three phases, 

 but no imaginal workers. The absence of these made it seem prob- 

 able that the pupae had been recently robbed by the Tetramorium 

 workers from some feeble mixed colony in the neighborhood. I 

 failed to find a mother queen of either species. 



4. August 18. On the right bank of the Triftbach, about fifteen 

 minutes' walk from Zermatt and also on the warm western slope of 

 the valley, I found tmder a small stone about sixty alpinus workers 

 with two Tetramorium workers and no larvae or pupae of either 

 species. The whole assemblage had the appearance of being a 

 small foraging party which had taken temporary refuge under the 

 stone. In the immediate neighborhood, however, I failed to find any 

 larger colony of which it could have been a part. 



5. August 18. In the same locality I found a small colony con- 

 taining about as many alpinus as Tetramorium workers, with a small 

 number of sexual larvae and pupae of the former. This colony was 

 under an isolated stone about 30 cm. in diameter. No queens of 

 either species were seen. 



6. August 18. In the same place I came upon an enormous 

 Tetramorium colony — the largest I have ever seen — under two huge, 

 contiguous, flat stones, each about 1.6 m. in diameter, and several 

 smaller stones near by. The workers of the two species were about 

 equally abundant, and besides many pupae of all phases of alpinus, there 

 were many recently hatched females and a very few males of this 

 species. I was unable to explore the nest as the large stones could 

 not be moved. I collected in a bag a colony of Tetramorium with 

 their brood from a point several hundred meters further up the 

 slope and dumped it on the flat stone near one of the main entrances 

 of the alpinus nest. These ants were slow in learning of the proximity 

 of the aliens, but after waiting about fifteen minutes I saw the alpinus 

 issue from their nest, move out over the earth I had dumped on the 



