II 



THE FOUNDING OF COLONIES BY QUEEN ANTS. 



By W. C. Crawley, B.A., F.E.S., and Horace Doxisthorpe, 



F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



It is only within comparatively recent years that anything 

 definite has been known with regard to the origin of the ant 

 colony. 



For more than a century this question has occupied the 

 attention of many observers, who, though expressing widely 

 divergent views, have helped by their patient investigation to 

 accumulate evidence without which the present state of know- 

 ledge on the subject could not have been reached. 



As far back as 1747, William Gould, who may justly be 

 called the father of British myrmecology, actually made an 

 experiment on fertile female ants. In his own quaint language 

 he says : " Upon frequent opening of Mole-Hills, amongst them 

 I met with three, in each of which was a Cluster of large Female 

 Ants, amounting to six or seven in a Cluster. They la}^ near 

 the Surface, but had no regular Apartment. . . . Upon Dissection 

 several of them had Parcels of Eggs in their Insides. I deposited 

 one of the Clusters in a Box with some Earth, under which they 

 concealed themselves, and united together, but did not work 

 any Lodgment. Some time after, three or four of these Females 

 laid a few Eggs, but did not seem to take any great Notice of 

 them. For Curiosity I placed in the Box a Cell of Workers 

 of the same Species, and it was surprising to observe what Fond- 

 ness was expressed. The Common Ants immediately sur- 

 rounded the Females, took care of the Eggs, and in a short 

 Period made an Apartment in the Earth fit to re('eivc them. 

 It may also be observed, that there were no Common Ants in 

 the Hills where I found the above Clusters." 



