48 THE ARGENTINE ANT. 



and blunt. The shape of the head alone permits distinction between 

 the male and virgin (winged) queen without the aid of a glass. 



The normal time of appearance of the males, of course, follows the 

 appearance of the male pupse, usually in the spring, but a few appear 

 in the fall. They are plentiful in the colonies during the latter part 

 of April and May, and numbers are still to be found in June. After 

 the beginning of July, however, they vanish, and are very seldom 

 seen during the hot months of the summer. A few are occasionally 

 found during October, November, and December, and in one case 

 a few males were found in a colony as late as January. 



The males are essentially drones, and never exhibit any indications 

 of industry or usefulness beyond their special function. 



The Queen. 



Adult queens are found in two forms, the winged and the wingless 

 or dciilatcd. The former is the virgin queen and the latter the fertile 

 or egg-laying queen. 



THE VIRGIN QUEEN. 



When the {jueen reaches maturity she ])ossesses long narrow wings 

 which are rather opaque, gray in color, with the veins and stigma 

 pale brown. In other respects she does not differ in appearance 

 from the dealated queen, described on i)age 49. The wings are 

 retained until after the queen has mated. Mating may take place 

 during the nuptial flight in spring, but under some circumstances 

 occurs within the nest without any flight being made. In the latter 

 case the queen loses her wings shortly after fertilization and assumes 

 her egg-laying duties in the home nest along with the older queens 

 already there. 



The earliest date at which we were able to find virgin queens in the 

 outdoor colonies was April 1. Normally the first spring aj)])earance 

 of males precedes the first appearance of virgin queens by about 

 three weeks. 



Probably owing to the extreme shortness of the winged stage, 

 winged queens are very hard to find in the outdoor nests. Although 

 they must exist in large numbers every spring, they have been col- 

 lected only occasionally. ^lost of our observations have been made 

 upon specimens reared from pupai in artificial nests. 



An enormous and general flight of males and virgin queens was 

 observed at Baton llouge, La., in the spring of 1908, when large num- 

 bers of both sexes were captured in butterfly nets. On the other 

 hand, during the spring of 1910 and that of 1911 no general flight 

 was observed at New Orleans, La., although close watch was kept for 

 one. Considerable numbers of males were seen flying around the 

 city electric lights, and individual males were found flying aimlessly 



