154 THE entomologist's record. 



still alive, but some F. saiu/iiinea and a F. fiisca were pulling her 

 about the nest. On the morning of September 11th she was dead. 

 The same evening I put another F. nifa 2 about six inches from the 

 nest. After a moment's hesitation she went straight to the door and 

 inside. A F. rufa pulled her by a mandible for a moment, but she was 

 otherwise unmolested. Next morning I found her outside the nest, 

 quite unhurt, being dragged about by a 7''. fuaca. On April 21st, 1909, 

 I put a fertile F. fiisca ? into a nest of F. sanuidnea which only contained 

 two F. fusca 5 s. The F. saiu/iiinea made some show of attacking her, 

 but she was allowed to escape unhurt. 



4. Formica fusca.— I made several experiments with fertile ? s of 

 this species, and nests both with and without queens. All these 

 experiments resulted in the strange $ s being attacked, but unfortu- 

 nately I omitted to record most of these cases. On April 18th, 1909, 1 

 tried a fertile F. fusca ? with some workers of the var. rufibarbis. 

 They attacked her. On the 21st I put her in an observation nest of 

 F. fusca which contained one $ . These ants also attacked her. 

 Again, May 22nd, I put the same J with a few ^ s and a $ of the 

 same species. The strange $ was found dead next day. A rather 

 unusual case occurred last year. In a small plaster nest I had a 

 F. fusca 5 with one ^ . I put a § of F. subserica (?) from America in this 

 nest on October 6th, 1909. The solitary ? immediately began to fight 

 with her, but after a few minutes they stopped. Next day there was 

 one of the ^ s dead, probably the F. fusca. The F\ subserica ^ seemed 

 perfectly friendly with the ? , so on October 9th I put the remaining 

 thirteen F\ subserica with them. They were all friendly with the 2 , 

 and, at the present moment (January, 1910), there still remain ten 

 F. subserica ? s and the F. fusca 2 • 



5. Lasius flavus. — Besides several unrecorded failures to induce 

 nests of this species to accept strange ? s, I have noted the following: — 

 August, 1893, I introduced a fertile 5 to a queenless nest of the same 

 species; the ants attacked her and penned her in with earth in a corner. 

 August 6th, 1897, 1 put into a queenless nest of /^.. //rtr//.s- a fertile ? that 

 I had kept alone since the previous summer. She entered the nest 

 readily and was soon surrounded by ants, who saluted her as they do 

 their own queen. Only one ant attacked her for a moment, and she 

 was accepted as queen. On January 14th, 1910, 1 put an old fertile $ 

 of L. fiavus into a queenless nest of the same species. Very little notice 

 was taken of her, and she was soon attacked by several ants. All the 

 apterous $ s of L. jianis that I have captured immediately after 

 swarming, have laid eggs a few days afterwards. I have found this species 

 very hostile to $ s of L. nit/er (January 14th, 1910, and other 

 occasions), and L. umhratus (September 18th, 1909, and other 

 occasions). 



6. Lasius niger. — In August, 1895, I took part of a nest of this 

 ant and established it with its queen in a Lubbock nest. Wishing to 

 possess the whole colony, a few days later I again dug up this nest and 

 found another queen, which I put in my nest. The ^ s were perfectly 

 friendly, but a few hours afterwards they dragged her out of the nest 

 and left her. Workers from the old nest were readily received in my 

 nest. On August 13th, 1898, I introduced some '^ s from a nest of 

 I J. niger (containing a 2 /..»»?/>/•« ?».s as queen) to a fertile ? of their 

 own species. The following day, when these ^ s were on friendly 



