1 2 University of Michigan 



in logs or stumps. This may mean that these tree colonies are 

 the younger ones, and choose this well protected and sheltered 

 site when they first leave their host colony of A. aquia, and 

 the limited space available eventually forces them to emigrate 

 to more spacious quarters. It must be noted here that the ant 

 never burrows in live wood. 



A very large colony was found in a decayed pine log on 

 the north beach, on September 21. The log was nearly buried 

 in the sand and was soft and punky. The outer and upper part 

 was firm and dry, forming a stifif shell that held the soft inte- 

 rior in shape. On the dry upper surface a number of the 

 dwarfed females so characteristic of this species were found 

 together with workers. All the females were winged. The 

 raising of the shell of dr^' wood laid bare a large part of the 

 upper portion of the nest, and here in the complicated series 

 of passages and chambers were many more of the aleate queens 

 and thousands of workers. The nest was four feet long, but 

 contained surprisingly few larvae or pupae for so large a col- 

 ony. These large colonies were rare, and this was the only 

 one. noted outside of the low hardwood forest. 



A smaller nest found in a birch stump in the low forest 

 habitat was very simple. Most of it was in a punky root of the 

 stuniTi. two to ten inches under ground. From this a single 

 passage, an old borer burrow, led up through a very sound 

 part of the stump for a distance of a foot or more to a cavity 

 in a softer portion. This cavity had been made by the ants, 

 was as large as a walnut and contained a few workers and 

 pupae. In the nest below there were many larvae. The same 

 day another nest almost as simple as tliis was found in the 

 base of a dead Norway pine in the same habitat. In it was a 

 single aleate male, which was being dragged along a passage- 



