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the end of 191 1 the workers numbered twenty, though there 

 had been three deaths. At the moment of writing (end of July 

 1912) there are thirty-six workers and several pupie, larv;e, and 

 eggs. This small colony shows in a striking manner how faith- 

 fully a queen-ant will perform her task of rearing a family. 



The length of the egg, larval, and pupal periods in this colony 

 difíers so widely from the observations of Miss Fielde on Aphœno- 

 gastcr fulva in its native country, that it is perhaps worth while 

 to give the details. Miss Fielde gives the duration of the egg 

 period as 17 to 22 days, that of the larval period as 24 to 27 

 days, and the pupal as 13 to 22 days. The corresponding periods 

 in Crawley's colony were 250 days, 35 days, and 25 to 52 days. 

 The difíerence of climate must have accounted for this great 

 disparity. 



Wheeler, in 1895, found thousands of isolated females of 

 Pogonomyrmex californicus in the act of establishing their formi- 

 caries on the sandy bank of the Colorado River. The females 

 burrowed down into the sand to the depth of three or four inches. 

 He points out that, judging from the small number of adult 

 colonies in the vicinity, very few of these females ever succeed 

 in rearing a colony. 



The females of our five British species of Myrmica are very 

 little larger than the workers, and at first sight it might appear 

 unlikely that they possessed the requisite amount of body fat 

 to endure the starvation necessary during the process of rearing 

 their first family. Yet it is undoubtedly a fact that they can, 

 and do, found colonies, either singly or two or more together. 

 The fact that there are generally at least three or four and some- 

 times a much larger number of queens in a single colony, points 

 to the probability of several females joining together. Females 

 after the marriage-flight may be received back into their own 

 nest, but it is not probable that strange females are adopted, 

 as these ants are very hostile to strangers, whether females or 

 workers. 



Lord AvEBURY first proved by experiment that M. riiginodis 

 is self-founding. On August 14th, 1876, he isolated two pairs 

 that he found flying, and placed them with damp earth, food, 

 and water. 



The females did not begin to lay until April 12th of the 

 3 



