419 



course they were headed for. I did not see any pairs in copula either 

 in the air or on the ground. In fact, I have never found a pair of 

 this species in copula, and think it quite Ukely that fertiHzation takes 

 place in the nest some time before the flight. 



FOUNDING OF THE COLONY 



Several methods of founding a colony are now generally recog- 

 nized. These methods have been designated by Wheeler ('06, pp. 34, 

 35) as the typical, the redundant, and the defective. 



In the first case the female after descending from her nuptial 

 flight, removes her wings and burrows into the ground or enters a 

 cavity beneath the bark of a log, or the like, where she forms a small 

 cell and begins to lay eggs or passes the winter and then begins to lay 

 eggs. When these hatch she feeds the larv?e from her own secretions. 



In the second case the female in addition to doing all that is re- 

 quired in the typical method, also cultivates certain fungi for herself 

 and her brood. 



The defective method Wheeler has subdivided into ( i ) temporary 

 social parasitism, (2) permanent social parasitism, and (3) dulosis, 

 or slavery. In temporary social parasitism the female enters a queen- 

 less colony of some other species and becomes adopted, thus getting 

 the alien ants to rear her first brood. These alien ants naturally die 

 off in the course of time, leaving a pure colony of the same species 

 as the queen. 



It is very well known that the first method mentioned is the one 

 usually employed by L. niger ainericanus, and it is generally believed 

 to be the only one employed. One may find solitary females in their 

 cells a few inches beneath the surface of the ground in October and 

 November; and may also find late in the summer or in the spring a 

 colony consisting of a queen and a few minim workers and larvae, the 

 product of one year's growth. 



November 18 I found in a corn field infested with Aphis maidi- 

 radicis Forbes, six separate cells, each containing a solitary female. 

 There were no eggs or young. The cells were only a few inches be- 

 neath the surface, three of them being beneath clods of earth. On 

 April 5, I found a lone queen in her cell a few inches beneath the 

 surface in a stalk-field, without eggs or young. Eggs may be laid, 

 however, in the fall. On September 5, I picked up thirty-six dealated 

 females that had just descended from their nuptial flights and 

 placed them together in a large Fielde nest. Within the 



