32 



We found in the New Forest this July an incipient colony of 

 gleharia with one female and about twenty workers. 



Emery isolated a gleharia female without food on June 25th, 

 1909, and by August 12th four very small workers reached 

 maturity. Two of the larvae had been used as food. All the 

 workers that hatched during the year were as small as the ñrst 

 four workers. 



On September 14th, 1910, Donisthorpe took five fusca 

 females from a colony under the bark of a tree-stump at Balrath, 

 Co. Meath. This colony contained very many females. On 

 September 17th he placed them all together in a plaster nest, 

 where they all laid eggs, which they carried about. These eggs 

 afterwards disappeared. Three of the females were taken away 

 for other experiments, and the remaining two lived together 

 all through 1911. On January 31st, 1912, one of them laid a 

 few eggs, which she held in her mandibles. On February 6th, 

 both females were holding bunches of eggs : they were quite 

 friendly, and sometimes one alone carried all the eggs. Eight 

 larvae were present on February 27th, three of which pupated 

 on March 2nd. This number increased to seven by the nth. 

 A fresh batch of eggs was laid on March 24th. On April ist the 

 first fusca callow hatched and was carried about by one of the 

 fusca females. A second appeared on the 3rd. On the 4th 

 another callow hatched, but was dead, and on the 8th a third, 

 which was assisted by one of the two others. Some more eggs 

 were laid on the 7th and were carried about by one of the workers. 

 A fourth callow was present on May 19th. On May 14th there 

 was a small bunch of larvae carried by the callows. By June 6th 

 one of the females had a swollen abdomen, but the other, which 

 had been ailing for some time and was of normal size, was dragged 

 , by an antenna by one of the workers. Since ants do not drag 

 each other by the antennae when their motives are friendly, this 

 would seem to be a hostile act : at any rate this female was dead 

 on June 7th, and put in the outside chamber. The female with 

 the swollen abdomen and all four workers are alive and well 

 to-day. This is the first time that an incipient colony of F. 

 fusca has been reared by isolated females in captivity. 



Schimmer in 1908 foimd a colony of fusca, v. fusco-rufibarbis, 

 consisting of fifteen females with only twenty to thirty workers. 



