57 



four days they were quite friendly and sat together. Subse- 

 quently the nest went wrong, and they both died on the same 

 day. 



On May 5th, 1911, Donisthorpe put a F. sanguínea female 

 from Woking into a small plaster nest containing a single F. 

 fusca female from Ireland with eggs. After living together for 

 some days in amity, first the F. fusca and then the F. sanguínea 

 female escaped, the nest having been disturbed. 



On May loth he put an old F. sanguínea female from \\ oking 

 with three F. fusca females from Ireland, one of whom had laid 

 eggs. The}' attacked the F. sanguínea female intermittentlv, 

 and she died on May 15th. 



On May 27th another old fertile female was put with a F. 

 fusca female. The F. sanguínea female was dead on June ist. 



On July 22nd a F. fusca female, an old fertile Wey bridge 

 F. sanguínea female, and a F. rufa female from Parkhurst Forest, 

 were put into a small plaster nest. On July 27th the F. fusca 

 female killed the F. rufa female (as quoted above under F. rufa) 

 and the F. sanguínea and F. fusca females remained friendly. 

 On July 31st the F. fusca was cleaning the F. sanguínea. They 

 lived amicably together and were often noticed to feed each 

 other, till August 6th, when the nest was left in the sun and both 

 ants were killed. 



This year a few more experiments have been attempted. 

 Two F. sanguínea females from Bewdle\- Forest were placed with 

 two F. fusca females from the Isle of Tiree. The F . sanguínea 

 females killed the F. fusca females. 



Another Bewdley Forest F. sanguínea female was placed with 

 a Tiree F. fusca female. These two have made friends, and are 

 living together amicabh' to-day. 



We now come to the experiments on the behaviour of F. 

 sanguínea females, when introduced to colonies of F. fusca 

 and its races. Wheeler's experiments in 1905 show that in 

 the American subspecies of F. sanguínea {rubicunda), the female 

 has the pillaging instinct as strong as the workers. In one case 

 an unfertilised deälated female, introduced into a small colony 

 of F. subsericea with no queen, stole the pu{Ke and eventuall\- 

 killed on all the workers. In similar experiments with F. aserta 

 and F. glaciaUs he obtained the same results. W.vsmaxn. on 

 8 



