THE COLONY AS A WHOLE. 53 



A short time after the ''divisional migration" has taken i:)lace m the 

 early part of March, the large amount of food brought in by the 

 workers, acting in conjunction with the warmer temperature, appears 

 to stimulate the queens to lay great numbers of eggs. Most of the 

 young stages carried through the whiter or which have slowly matured 

 during winter have by this time transformed into workers, so that 

 the colonies consist of many workers, with comparatively few imma- 

 ture stages other than the eggs. Ilatching takes place during the latter 

 half of March, and the larvae resulting from these eggs, after develop- 

 ing, transform into three classes of pupee, viz, queen, male, and 

 worker. Of these the male pupge preponderate, with the workers a 

 close second and queen pupae a very poor third. The male pupse 

 appear m great numbers several days before the queen pupa3 appear, 

 which may possibly mdicate a slightly longer larval j^eriod for the 

 queens than for the males. 



The adult winged males appear during the latter part of April and 

 in iMay, and are in evidence in the nests until the beginning of June, 

 when they begin to disappear. The winged queens appear a few days 

 later. For some reason the winged queens are extraordinarily difh- 

 cult to find in the nests, although their large size and long narrow 

 wings should make them very conspicuous. However, only three 

 winged queens have as yet been located in the nests under natural 

 conditions in Louisiana. Fortunately the queen pupae are not so 

 difficult to discover, and a considerable number have been reared to 

 the adult stage m Janet style nests in the laboratory, where most of 

 our observations upon this stage have been made. 



The appearance of the winged queens and males may or may not 

 be followed by a nuptial flight. In either case, after the queens have 

 become fertile they lose their wings and immediately start laying 

 great numbers of eggs. These eggs develop into workers, with the 

 exception of a few eggs which are laid in the late autunm and develop 

 into males. It thus follows that the most rapid and conspicuous 

 increase in numbers occurs during July, August, and September, 

 when the eggs laid by the army of young queens complete their life 

 history and transform into adult workers. 



From then on to late in the fall the history of the colonies is very 

 smiilar and devoid of mcident. The numerical strength of the ants 

 is constantly on the increase, and it is j)robable that the greatest 

 natural dispersion occurs during the fall months, after the nests 

 have been excessively crowded by the activity and increase of the 

 summer. 



During the latter part of October and in November the nights 

 begin to get cool and we find the first mclmation toward the form- 

 ation of the whiter colonies. The nests in exposed open situations 

 are gradually deserted, and strong colonies accumulate m well- 



