3S 



Wasmann has shown, some distance from the parent colony, 

 and the gradual emigration of a large body of workers, with 

 queens and brood, to the new site. 



DoNiSTHORPE observed a branch nest of Formica rufa in the 

 Black Wood at Rannock on June 12th, 1911. Two nests were 

 found to be in connection, 128 yd. apart — one a large mound 

 about 72 in. across by 54 in. in height, a few yards below the 

 path, and the other a small hillock about the same distance from 

 the path on the other side of it. The ants were going backwards 

 and forwards along the path to the two nests. Food was being 

 carried to the larger nest, but the ants were carrying their larvae 

 from the large nest to the smaller one. A de ala ted female was 

 trying to get to the smaller nest ; though often stopped by the 

 workers she persisted, and gradually won her way to it. Winged 

 females were upon the larger nest. Thus a single colony may 

 in time spread its branches over a very large area. This has 

 probably been the means, as suggested by Wheeler, of depriving 

 queens of the rufa group of their primitive ability to establish 

 exclusively through their own initiative. 



Some writers (Lepeletier de St. Fargeau, Silverlock, 

 etc.) have suggested that young fertilised females, after the 

 marriage-flight, meet a few stray workers and then start a colony 

 with them. We may at once say that, judging from over twenty 

 years' experience of the behaviour of ants under various con- 

 ditions, this is highly improbable. If a few stray workers met 

 a fertile female from the same colon3^ or from one originally 

 sprung from the same stock, they would undoubtedly convey 

 her to their nest, so strong is the desire of workers to return to 

 their own home. If a female met workers from a strange colony, 

 she would avoid them, or thev would certainly attack her- 

 When a few workers of F. rufa in particular are isolated, whether 

 with a queen or not, they lose all interest in their surroundings 

 and seem to pine away. 



A colony of F. rufa, kept by Crawley on the same table 

 with another strange colon}', voluntarily quitted its own nest 

 and allied itself with the latter. The former colony came from 

 Weybridge in 1912 and consisted of a hundred or so workers, 

 with eight queens and brood, and the latter was taken at Porlock 

 in 191 1 and contained six queens and more workers than the 



