1909.] 95 



In 1896 T took a youn<]^ fertile ? from a nest of Jlavua that was 

 swartniug, put her with twenty workers from the same nest, and thus 

 started a new colony. 



In 1897 1 had a queenless nest of ilnvus and a fertile $ that had 

 been kept alone since the previous year. I introduced four workers 

 to her, and, shortly afterwards, put the box containing them before 

 the door of the nest. The workers immediately went in, and the $ 

 followed of her own accord, entered the nest, and was accepted as 

 queen. There were ten winged ? ? in the nest at the time. In a few 

 days the workers killed them all. 



In 1895 I took part of a nest of Lasius niger, containing a queen. 

 A few days afterwards I found another queen in the old nest, and I 

 introduced this queen to my nest. She was recognised, and the ants 

 were perfectly friendly, but the same day she was dragged out of the 

 nest and abandoned. Workers from the old nest were received readily 

 as inmates of mine. 



A nest of Lasius umhratus, with a queen, would not accept another 

 (1899) ; and two young fertile ? ? from the same nest fought on 

 being put together, and one killed the other. During the years 

 1901 — 1907 I made unsuccessful attempts with queenless nests of 

 Lasius ni(/er, flavus ; JSIyrmica IcBvinoclis, scabrinocUs, and rmfmodis 



On the other hand, in 1904, I found that three fertile ? $ of 

 Formica rufa were received and lived in a queenless nest of the same 

 species. In this case no notice was taken of the new-comers. 



In Switzerland, 1905, I was unsuccessful in trying to form a nest 

 with young fertile ? ? of Lasius fuUginosus and workers from the 

 same nest. The workers took no notice of the J $ , and showed no 

 signs of settling down in the nest. Also workers of a large wood- 

 boring Formica were hostile to a fertile ? of the same species. 



In September, 1908, I introduced a fertile ? of Formica sanguinea 

 to a queenless colony of the same species. She was at once attacked, 

 though strange workers were admitted to the nest. 



I now come to the two abnormal cases. 



On August 4th, 1896, I procured a nest of Lasius niger, with a 

 queen, 300 — 400 workers, a few pupae, among which was one $ pupa, 

 and a large quantity of eggs. The queen, however, was injured while 

 digging up the nest, and died as soon as the ants were established in 

 my artificial nest. The workers clustered round the dead body for 

 more than a fortnight, when they carried it outside the nest aud left 

 it. On August 18th I picked up a youug fertile ? of Lasius umhratus, 

 a nest having; " swarmed " somewhere in the neighbourhood. At the 



