1906.] Wheeler, Founding of Colonies by Queen Ants. 57 



artificially augmented. Perhaps this dog-in-the-manger instinct 

 on the part of the consocians is still in process of development, or being 

 controlled or rendered in part unnecessary b}' the unwillingness of 

 the incerta workers to receive these females into the colony. At any 

 rate, a second female entering an incerta nest must meet with greater 

 opposition than the first, since she must overcome both the hostility 

 of the incerta and that of the adopted consocians . 



Third, the above experiments show very clearly that mere arti- 

 ficial dealation at once produces an interesting change in the instincts 

 of the female. She becomes forthwith negatively phototropic, less in- 

 clined to feed herself, and shows great interest in the incerta workers. 

 In other words she behaves as if she had been fertilized, and, instead 

 of resting or moving indolently about the nest, seems to have suddenly 

 awakened to an appreciation of thes erious tasks of her existence as 

 the mother of a future colony. 



While the preceding experiments show that consocians females fresh 

 from the maternal nest are quite readily adopted by incerta workers 

 which to all appearances have had no previous experience with these 

 parasites, it is clear that the possibility of such experience has not been 

 eliminated. In other words, it may be objected that the incerta, 

 having lived in a locality inhabited by consocians , must be familiar 

 with this species and, for aught we know to the contrary, may have 

 been hatched and reared in or very near a colony of the parasitic 

 species. The cogency which any one unfamiliar with the ways of ants 

 might find in this objection is completely destroyed by the two follow- . 

 ing experiments, which at the same time strengthen the conclusions 

 drawn from my previous observations : 



Experiment p. July 5. A number of worker pup« and a just hatched 

 callow from a wild incerta nest were isolated. By July 7 eleven workers had 

 hatched and had reached maturity by July 10. At 12 m. on the latter date a 

 single dealated consocians female was introduced into the nest. She ran about 

 a moment till she stumbled on the group of workers brooding over their cocoons. 

 She touched the head of one of them and at once began to quicken the vibra- 

 tions of her antennae, while the remaining workers clustered around her and 

 responded with a similar acceleration of their antennal beats. Only one 

 worker showed a trace of hostility by opening her mandibles. The consocians 

 female at once fell to hcking one of the workers, while the others turned 

 away apparently satisfied that the female was good company. Though the 

 nest was watched repeatedly on this and the following day (July 11), no sign 

 of hostility could be detected. July 12, 2 p.m. Two more females were in- 

 troduced. They were carefully scrutinized, pulled a little and then licked by 

 the workers. They stood their ground and at once began to caress the incerta. 

 At 4 P.M. four more females were introduced, making seven altogether. Like 



