1906.] Wheeler, Founding of Colonies by Queen Ants'. 35 



stances that are converted into food for the young. Although so 

 arduous that few of the many queens of all that celebrate their nuptial 

 flight during a season ever succeed in establishing a colony, this method 

 is, nevertheless, the one adopted by the great majority of ants. 



2 . The female is not only able to accomplish all that is implied in 

 the usual method of founding a colony, but in addition she can carry 

 over to her colony and cultivate certain plants that have been grown 

 as food for countless generations by the stock from which she sprang. 

 This is the case in the remarkable fungus-raising ants {Attii) of tropical 

 and subtropical America. 



3. The female ant, owing to her small and delicate stature or de- 

 layed fertility, is quite unable to found a colony without the aid of 

 workers of another species. This method which is resorted to by 

 parasitic species — using that term in a very broad sense — -appears 

 under three different aspects: 



A. As temporary social parasitism. The female seeks and obtains 

 adoption in a small queenless colony of another species and permits its 

 alien workers to bring up her 5?-oung. When these have matured, they 

 emancipate themselves and become an independent colony, either by 

 emigration or, more probably, only through the natural death of the 

 host species. 



B. As permanent social parasitism. The female seeks and obtains 

 adoption in a colony of some other species and there permanently 

 resides together with her offspring. Examples: Anergates, Sirongy- 

 lognathiis, Protomognathus , Wheeleria, etc. 



C. As dulosis, or slavery. The solitary female enters a small colony 

 of another species, kills the workers, and seizes and rears the progeny 

 (larvae and pupae) as a first step towards bringing up her own young. 

 The workers produced by the female subsequently make forays on 

 other colonies of the host species and appropriate their offspring. 

 While they use a portion of these as food, they permit another portion 

 to develop as "auxiliaries" or "slaves," so that the colony preserves 

 its "mixed" character. This method is adopted by some, if not by 

 all, the forms of the sanguinary ant, or blood-red slave-maker {For- 

 mica sanguined). The amazon ants (Polyergus) appear to combine 

 this with the preceding method. 



Although in this paper we are especially concerned with temporary 

 social parasitism and dulosis, it may not be amiss to discuss a few 

 matters, mainly of a historical nature, concerning the usual and 

 redundant methods of colony formation. 



Pierre Huber was the first to call attention to the method of colony 



