434 PKOCEEDIXGS OF THE ACADEMY OF ['^ll'v, 



Three solitary widowed queens of the five iu my Petri ctills, 

 during four or more months after beginning to lay egg?, failed to 

 rear any larvte, although other queens to the number of seven, at 

 the same time and iu exactly similar conditions, with the exception 

 of having worker-assistants, all reared oue or more broods. The 

 fourth solitarj queen brought up a single male, I myself having 

 given her much help in the feeding of one larva, the sole survivor 

 among many that appeared and perished during four months. 

 The fifth solitary queen had the assistance of workers in rearing 

 her first larvse, and later on when the workers were removed, she 

 indisputably fed and reared larvae all the way from the egg 

 upward. 



The length of the larval period has, iu my uests of Stenamma 

 fiilvum piceiun, as is generally thought to be the case with other 

 ants, been apparently dependent on the amouut and quahty of the 

 food-supply. Between October 27 and May 9 I recorded the 

 beginning and end of the larval stage of twenty-six larvre from 

 queens' eggs. There was one of twenty days, one of twenty-one, 

 one of twenty-two, three of twenty -four, one of twenty- five, one 

 of twenty-six, oue of twenty-seven, four of tweuty-eight, oue of 

 twenty-nine, three of thirty, one of thirty-one, two of forty-two, 

 one of fifty-three, one of eighty-four, three of uinety-three, and 

 one of ninety-seven days' duration. ^11 the larval periods shorter 

 than forty-three days were in domiciles where the queen was pres- 

 ent, and all over forty- three days were in cells where the larvse 

 were reared by workers alone. The assiduity of the worker is even 

 obviously greater when the queen is present. The shortest period 

 recorded was that of the larva iu whose feeding I myself assisted 

 ttie queen. 



The length of the larval period does not determine the sex nor 

 the size of the ant. In the cases above recorded, one larva having 

 a period of twenty, one of thirty and one of ninety-three days 

 all ultimately became males. Oue larva with a period of twenty- 

 four, one of ninety-three and oue of ninety-seven days all ulti- 

 mately became miuims. The only queen hatched iu my uests had 

 a larval period of fifty-three days. A queens' -egg-larva now 

 under the care of three workers in one of my Petri cells has been 

 in the larval stage a hundred and forty days. 



From four to eight days previous to emergence from the larval 



