452 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 





W 



been shown by Janet ('98) and by Fielde 

 (: 04'') ; but in my experiments many in- 

 dividuals did not enter the food-chamber 

 for a long period, fifty days, and while 

 it is possible that they may exist for such 

 a period when deprived of food, I do not 

 believe that with food within their reach 

 they would, as a rule, go so long without 

 eating. Moreover, it is certain that not 

 every individual is dependent for its food 

 on a personal visit to the food-chamber, 

 because I have often seen ants, immedi- 

 ately after being taken from B (containing 

 food) and placed back in A, regurgitate 

 food to their fellows, so that the failure 

 of a particular ant to visit the food- 

 chamber by no means warrants the con- 

 clusion that it has remained without 

 nutrition. Many of the nests contained 

 queens, males, and larvae, all of which 

 throve, the ants being able to rear their 

 young in chamber A provided proper food 

 was kept in B, and provided the ants 

 which entered B were placed back in A. 

 Colony 4 was the only one without a 

 queen, but as the ants even in this colony 

 flourished, it cannot be said that in all 

 cases the food is supplied by queens, ei- 

 ther through their fat-bodies or otherwise 

 as is done when a queen is founding a 

 colony. 



Table II was made up in exactly the 

 same manner as Table I, except that the 

 intervals between observations were 48 

 hours instead of 24. In the cases of col- 

 onies 24, 42, 51, and 54, the per cents of 

 ants entering B were larger when the 

 food was in B than when it was in A ; 

 the reverse was true in colonies 52, 53, 



and 



The deficiencies in the records 



of colonies 4, 17, 20, and 24 are due to the 

 fact that these colonies were examined 



