82 THE entomologist's record. 



On the founding of nests by Ants; and a few notes 

 on Myrmecophiles. 



By HOEACE DONISTHORPE, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 

 The early idea of how a colony of ants was started was that a 

 solitary female ant, after her marriage flight, found a suitable spot, 

 and laying her eggs, brought up the brood herself. This, of course, 

 holds good with many species (Lasias flacus and L. nir/er, Myrmica 

 rubra, etc.), but of late years much progress has been made in our 

 knowledge of how some other species found their colonies, and the 

 reason of our finding mixed nests of ants. Much patient research has 

 been given to the subject by Wheeler, Wasmann, and others. I propose 

 to deal briefly with a few of these points, having recently carried 

 on some successful experiments which appear to help to confirm the 

 new views. 



It is quite clear that in the Formica rufa group (F. rufa, F. 

 pratensis, F. sanytiinea, F. exsecta) the queens have lost the power of 

 founding colonies by themselves. They either do so by branch nests, 

 by being accepted into a nest of their own species near at hand, or 

 received back into their own, or by entering a nest of another species 

 of ant belonging to the F. fusca group. In the latter event, the F. r)ifa 

 5 enters a new, or weak, F. fusca nest, and, after more or less fight- 

 ing with the F. fusca ^ s, is accepted by them, and her first brood 

 is brought up with their help. It is exceeding^ probable that she kills 

 the F. fusca $ , if present, as there is now evidence on this point. 

 I determined to try and see if I could get a F. rufa $ accepted in one 

 of my observation nests, and have been entirely successful, as the 

 following notes will show, 



I had some 40 ^ s of F. rujibarbis var. fusco-rufibarbis, which 

 Mr. Keys had sent me, last July, from Whitsand Bay, in a combined 

 Fielde and Janet nest. These, on January 28th, I confined in the one 

 compartment of the nest by blocking up the connection between the 

 two with cotton wool. Into the empty compartment I put a 2 F. rufa 

 from a rufa nest I had in a glass bowl, and which I had brought from 

 Nethy Bridge last May. I kept the ? by herself till February 1st, to 

 allow her to somewhat get rid of her own nest aura, as she would do 

 in nature. A $ , after her marriage flight, would be wandering about 

 for some days. She would also remain in the neighbourhood of the 

 F. fusca nest she had found, and would work her way in by degrees. 

 On February 1st, I removed the obstruction between the two compart- 

 ments. Several ^ s entered her compartment, the ? seemed very 

 restless, repeatedly entering their compartment and returning again ; 

 at first when she met ^ s they ran away, and she also seemed to 

 hurry out of their way. On February 2nd she was attacked, but 

 regained her own compartment, in which five ^ s had entered. 

 I blocked up the connection for the night leaving her with these five. 

 February 3rd she was again attacked, and she killed a very 

 persistent ^ after trying hard to conciliate it by much antenna- 

 tapping and stroking. Later, another pulled her along by the antenna, 

 the 2 only tapped it with her other antenna, and finally it let go. 

 Meanwhile, another ^ climbed over and under the 2 without attack- 

 ing her. Later, the 2 was fed by a ^ ! At night the 2 was sitting 

 with two ^ s in a corner, quite friendly, and tapping antenna together. 

 I allowed more ^ s to enter. On February 4th I introduced another ^ , 



