441 



6. The length of the different stages varies with conditions. The 

 larval stage may extend over more than a year. 



7. The average number of adults produced in a season was eleven, 

 and the maximum number, twenty-seven. 



8. The number of eggs laid by a queen depends upon the amount 

 of nourishment she receives. In large colonies she may lay at the 

 rate of more than one hundred eggs per day. 



9. During the winter, nests of this species contain only dealated 

 females, workers, and larvae. 



10. The winter quarters of this species are at about the same depth 

 as those of the summer. 



11. Ants taken from winter quarters in a frozen condition re- 

 sume their normal activities at once upon being thawed out. 



12. A single colony of L. niger aiiiericanus may carry through 

 the winter more than one thousand eggs of Aphis uiaidiradicis. 



13. A small percentage of the pup?e of this ant are naked, some 

 of them owing to a failure of the larvae to attach their first silken 

 threads. Naked pupae occur among those of a first-year colony as 

 well as in older colonies. 



14. The workers seem to be able to produce queen larvae by fur- 

 nishing plenty of food. 



15. The workers will eat some of the larvae, even though plenty 

 of food is provided. 



16. If a colony of workers is heavily fed it will produce a large 

 number of eggs. 



17. The adults from such eggs in all my colonies were males. 



18. A colony probably does not continue to exist longer than the 

 second year after the death of the queen. Such a colony may adopt a 

 young fertilized female of the same species just descended from the 

 nuptial flight, or may serve as host for the queen of another species 

 that is temporarily parasitic upon Lasius niger ainericamis. 



19. Colonies of Lasius niger auicricanus are founded in one of 

 two ways; (i) by the typical method or (2) by the adoption of re- 

 cently fertilized females by a small queenless colony. 



ADDITIONAL NOTES 



In one of my Fielde nests I noticed one day a larva with its an- 

 terior end lying against one of the eggs, which it seemed to be eating 

 in the same way as described earlier for the small bits of egg yolk. 

 On examining with a lens I could see that about one half of the tgg 



