1917] Wheeler—Social Parasitism of Lasius subumbratus Viereck egal 
shallow superficial chambers. By shading the chambers, which 
were occupied by numerous neoniger workers and cocoons, the be- 
havior of the yellow queens could be readily studied. They ran 
in and out of the chambers and galleries leading into the soil and, 
when accosted by the neoniger workers, made peculiar supplicatory 
movements with the antenne, precisely like those of Formica 
consocians queens seeking adoption in nests of F. incerta. The 
neoniger workers, however, resented the intrusion and frequently 
seized the legs and antenne of the queens, though they soon re- 
leased their hold. ‘The queens thus liberated often escaped from 
the nest and hid under stones near it or even in unfrequented nooks 
in the superficial chambers of the nest itself. On several occasions 
we saw a queen seize a neoniger worker, carry it out of the nest and 
release it uninjured. One queen was seen to snatch up a worker 
cocoon, carry it out of the nest and conceal it under an adjacent 
pebble. This is very suggestive of the behavior of the young 
Formica sanguinea queen that has entered a nest of F. fusca, but 
though it undeniably shows an interest on the part of the subwm- 
bratus queen in the neoniger brood, her method of colony formation 
is not that of F. sanguinea, for we soon discovered a depauperate 
neoniger colony which had undoubtedly adopted a swhumbratus 
queen. The latter was moving to and fro very slowly and amicably 
in the midst of several neoniger workers and their cocoons in a 
small recess under a stone. ‘The ants were watched for some time 
and behaved precisely like members of a single colony. That the 
queens are nevertheless occasionally treated much more severely 
by the neoniger workers, is apparent from the fact that we found a 
few recently killed and one partially eaten in the superficial cham- 
bers of some of the nests. 
July 9. Visited another rocky slope and an adjoining pine 
forest about a mile east of Cloudcroft and two miles from the lo- 
cality of yesterday’s observations. Under the stones covering 
neoniger and sitkaénsis nests there were many deiilated swubum- 
bratus queens eagerly seeking adoption. The following three 
colonies showed clearly that some of the queens had been or were 
being accepted: 
1. A populous sitkaénsis colony under several large contiguous 
stones among the pines. The superficial galleries of the nest were 
filled with workers and worker, male and female cocoons nearly 
