51 



îiest by the workers, and has to overcome little or none of the 

 opposition that is encountered b}- the temporary social parasites 

 of the genus Formica. 



An experiment which remains to be made is the introduction 

 of a young fertile female of L. iimbratus to a nest of L. niger 

 which contains a L. nigcr queen. 



We know of three cases of mixed colonies found in nature, 

 one of L. umbratus and L. niger, another L. umhratus subumbratus, 

 and the third L. mixtus and L. alicnus. 



Wasmanx, in August 1909, discovered near Lippspringe, in 

 Westphalia, a populous colony composed of about 1,000 L. 

 niger workers, one hundred L. umbratus workers, and several 

 males and one winged female of L. umbratus. Wheeler records 

 in 1910 that six deälated females of L. umbratus subumbratus 

 were found by Reiff at Bedford, N.S., living in three colonies 

 of L. niger, v. neoniger. 



DoNiSTHORPE, at Weybridge on Julv 28th, 1912, found a 

 nest of L. alienus containing a deälated female of L. mixtus. 

 He dug up the nest thoroughly, and no other female was 

 present. There was a number of pupœ, but no eggs or larvie 

 in the nest, and the pupie have since proved to be L. alienus. 

 Eggs were laid by the female this August. We should judge 

 this L. mixtus female, therefore, to have been adopted last 

 summer. 



This discovery completes the chain of evidence b\' giving 

 us an example in nature of the initial stage of TcmporarN' Social 

 Parasitism in the L. umbratus group. 



L. fuliginosus often founds new colonies by branch nests, 

 in a similar way to that employed by F. rufa, F. exsecta, and 

 F. sanguínea. This accounts for the fact that man\' cohmios 

 are found in the districts where this ant occurs. 



It i> highly probable that there are often a fair number of 

 queens in a nest of this species. This would be accounted for 

 by the reception of newly fertilised females back intf) the parent 

 nest. Such an occurrence was actually observed by Crawley 

 at Ouchy, Switzerland, in May 1905 ; copulation, therefore, must 

 have taken place close to the nest, and this is ¡mjbably the 

 general rule. 



DoNiSTHORPE, at Wellington College, in July 191 1, observed 



