34 ADOPTION OF A QUEEN. 



in which. fertile queens introduced into queenlcss nests 

 were ruthlessly attacked, and subsequent experiments 

 have always had the same result. Mr. .Tenner Fust, 

 however, suggested to me to introduce the queen into 

 the nest, as is done with bees, in a wiie cage, and leave 

 her there for two or three . days, so that the workers 

 might, as it were, get accustomed to her. Accordingly 

 I procured a queen of F. fiisca and put her with some 

 honey in a queenless nest, enclosed in a wire cage so 

 that the ants could not get at her. After three days I 

 let her out, but she was at once attacked. Perhaps I 

 ought to have waited a few days longer. On the con- 

 trary, Mr. McCook reports a case of the adoption of a 

 fertile queen of Or emastog aster lineolata by a colony 

 of the same species : ^ — ' The queen,' he says, ' was 

 taken April 16, and on May 14 following was introduced 

 to workers of a nest taken the same day. The queen 

 was alone within an artificial glass formicary, and 

 several workers were introduced. One of these soon 

 found the queen, exhibited much excitement but no 

 hostility, and immediately ran to her sister workers, all 

 of whom were presently clustered upon the queen. 

 As other workers were gradually introduced they joined 

 their comrades, until the body of the queen (who is 

 much larger than the workers) was nearly covered with 

 them. They appeared to be holding on by their man- 

 dibles to the delicate hairs upon the female's body, and 



' Pi-PC. Acad Natural Sciencti of Pliiladelpliia, 1879. ' Note o.t 

 Ihc Adoption of an Ant-Quecn,' by Mr McCook, p. 139. 



