314 WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER 
very ancient behavior of the solitary female Hymenopteron is 
still reproduced during the incipient stage of colony formation, 
just as the unicellular phase of the Metazoon is represented by 
the egg. A further correspéndence of the ontogeny and phylog- 
eny is indicated by the fact that the most archaic and primitive 
of living ants form small colonies of monomorphic workers 
closely resembling the queen, whereas the more recent and most 
highly specialized ants produce large colonies of workers not only 
very unlike the queen but unlike one another. 
In order to complete the foregoing account it will be necessary 
to consider some interesting modifications of the usual method 
of colony formation and growth, especially as these modifications 
furnish additional and striking evidence in favor of the contention 
that the ant-colony is a true organism. In many species, after the 
colony has reached maturity and especially if the food-supply 
continue to be abundant, several of the virgin females may be 
fecundated in the nest, lose their wings and remain as members of 
the colony. This may, indeed, contain half a dozen and in extreme 
cases as many as forty or fifty or even more fertile queens. But 
often the growth of the colonial organism becomesexcessive through 
an increase in the worker personnel and passes over into a form of 
colonial reproduction, when the young fertilized queens, each 
accompanied by a band of workers, start new nests in the vicinity 
of the parental formicary. In this manner a very large and com- 
plex colony may arise and extend over many adjacent nests. For 
some time the new settlements may remain in communication with 
the home-nest through files of workers, but eventually the daugh- 
ter settlements may become detached and form independent 
colonies. The resemblance of this method of reproductton, which 
is essentially the same as thesswarming in the honey-bee, to the 
asexual reproduction of many unicellular and multicellular organ- 
isms by a process of budding, is too obvious to need further com- 
ment. 
The important rdle of nutrition in the development of the 
colony will be clear from the foregoing remarks. It becomes even 
more striking in the methods adopted by the queens of cer- 
tain parasitic species in starting their colonies. Some European 
