433 



began laying April 27, and by Jnne 10, when she died, had laid 45 

 eggs ; but they kept disappearing from time to time, and none of 

 them hatched. 



COLONY i8d 



This queen was taken at the same time as the one in colony i8f, 

 and kept under the same conditions. She began laying the same day, 

 April 27, and by July 31, when she died, she had laid 114 eggs, but 

 for the same reason as above, none of them hatched. 



COLONY 26a 



This queen was kept over winter in a warm greenhouse. She 

 began laying February 27, and by September 3 had laid 140 eggs, 

 from which but two adults were reared. As so many disappeared 

 at different times I could not get the lengths of the various stages. 



A large number of the queens which I used for starting colonies 

 li^■ed only a few weeks or months and did not bring any young to 

 maturity, although all laid eggs. Some of them seemed to eat a 

 large percentage of the eggs, while others simply allowed the eggs 

 to spoil. Three other queens may be mentioned. The one in Colony 

 B, No. If, taken in April and kept under natural conditions, produced 

 2 workers and 11 larv?e by September 15. The egg period for the 

 first 2 eggs was 24 days. The egg stages for the first 3 larvae were 

 21, 24, and 25 days, respectively. The pupal period for the first 

 adult which emerged was 26 days. 



In Colony B, No. id, the queen produced 9 workers by Septem- 

 ber 7. 



Colony B, No. 1/ was kept under practically normal conditions. 

 The queen was taken about the middle of April and kept with some 

 others until June 24, when I placed her in a Barth nest, made by 

 placing a glass cylinder 3 inches high and 3 inches in diameter inside 

 a cylindrical glass jar 4 inches high and 4 inches in diameter, and 

 filling the space between the cylinder and the jar with moist sand. 

 The top was then covered with a layer of cotton batting, and this 

 was held down by a pane of glass. The queen began to burrow at 

 once, and by June 30 had made a complete cell at the bottom of the 

 sand and had deposited several eggs. In forming her cell the queen 

 had completely closed the burrow by means of which she reached 

 the bottom of the sand. With such a nest it was impossible to take 



