36 



the workers remaining neutral. Next day the colony split into 

 two camps, each containing one female and workers, first one 

 female and then the other gaining possession of the brood. 

 From time to time the females fought. This he sa3^s proves 

 that two females may sometimes found colonies together, but 

 eventually part and form two separate ones. The workers did 

 not favour either female, as they do in the case of L. niger, and 

 though one female lost an antenna in the fighting, neither was 

 killed, the females separating. In the case of L. niger it will 

 be remembered the antagonists had no thought of escaping, 

 though the}^ might readily have done so. 



Abnormal Methods. 



We now turn to those species of ants whose females have 

 lost the instinct and have no longer the power to found colonies 

 by themselves. It is now a well-established fact that, as Adlerz 

 suggested years ago, those females which enclose themselves 

 in a cell completely shut in until they have brought their off- 

 spring to maturity, take no food whatever beyond that supplied 

 by their own bodies during this period, which may extend for a 

 few weeks to many months. The larvœ are fed by the females 

 with secretions arising from their store of body-fat and the 

 degenerated wing-muscles, and occasionally from their own 

 eggs. 



Now in several genera some species are found whose females 

 in comparison with their workers are much smaller than those 

 of the other species which are known to found their colonies 

 imaided. It is improbable that they should be able to endure 

 the strain of starvation and the rearing of the larvœ with such 

 scanty resources. Mere smallness of stature, however, must 

 not be taken as evidence that a female cannot rear workers 

 herself, for we have seen that the females of several of our species 

 of Myrmica and Leptothorax, which are onh^ slightly larger than 

 the workers, can successfully found colonies. 



The fact that no one has ever found an isolated female of 

 the various species of the Formica rufa and F. exsecta groups in 

 the act of bringing up her brood, coupled with the small size 

 of some of their females as compared with the workers, led several 



