1906.] Wheeler, Founding of Colonies by Queen Ants. 45 



"After carefully watching the ant for hours she will be seen sud- 

 denly to tear a little piece out of the fungus garden with her mandibles 

 and hold it against the tip of her gaster, which is bent forward for this 

 purpose. At the same time she emits from her vent a clear yellowish 

 or brownish droplet which is at once absorbed by the tuft of hyphae. 

 Hereupon the tuft is again inserted, amid much feeling about with the 

 antennae, in the fungus garden, usually not in the same spot from which 

 it was taken, and is then patted in place by means of the fore feet. 

 The fungus then sucks up the drop more or less quickly. Often sev- 

 eral of these drops may be clearly seen scattered over the young 

 fungus garden. According to my observations this performance is 

 repeated usually once or twice an hour, and sometimes, to be sure, 

 even more frequently. It can almost always be observed a number of 

 times in succession when a mother ant that has no fungus, as some- 

 times happens in the cultures, is given a piece of fungus belonging to 

 another AUa female or from an older colony. The mother ant is vis- 

 ibly excited while she explores the gift with her antennae, and usually 

 in a few minutes begins to divide it up and rebuild it. At such times 

 she first applies each piece to her vent in the manner above described 

 and drenches it with a fecal droplet." 



From these observations Huber concludes that the droplet must 

 be liquid excrement and that the fungus owes its growth to this method 

 of manuring. A direct use of malaxated eggs for this purpose was 

 never observed and could not be detected by microscopical exami- 

 nation, although a number of observations show that the same result 

 may be accomplished indirectly, namely by the female eating her own 

 eggs. This habit is so common and apparently so normal that Huber 

 estimates that 9 out of every 10 eggs are devoured by the mother, 

 often as soon as they are laid. The life of the Atta female in her little 

 cell during all this time is very rhythmical. At regular intervals she 

 conscientiously examines the walls of the cavity, flattens out the earth, 

 etc. She devotes more time to licking and manuring the fungus gar- 

 den and, of course, lavishes most care on the brood. 



As soon as the larvae appear they are fed directly with eggs thrust 

 into their mouths by their mother. Huber concludes that this is 

 their normal diet till the first workers hatch. He never saw the female 

 either eating the fungus mycelium herself or feeding it to the young. 

 As a proof of his contention he cites the case of one of his Atta queens 

 who brought up a brood without a fungus garden. With the appear- 

 ance of the firstling workers, which are minims, that is members of 

 the smallest worker caste, a change comes over the colony. They 



