86 Bulletm American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXII, 



Experiment 4J. July 21, 6 p.m., a female aserva was placed in a nest coti- 

 taining 11 small subsericea workers and some nude pupas taken from a small 

 colony under a stone. The female was at once attacked by a worker but curled 

 her body and tried to kill her assailant. At first she could not free herself and 

 soon had two more workers pulling at a leg and antenna. She finally succeeded 

 in extricating her antenna, but by 6.30 had lost both hind tibia; and was being 

 pulled about by 3 workers. At 6.45 she killed one worker and ran about Avith 

 another dead one dangling from her antenna. By 7 p. m. she had cast off this 

 encumbrance and was resting on the sponge. As her hind legs had been seriously 

 injured she was removed from the nest and the experiment was discontinued- 

 In another similar experiment the aserva female was promptly dispatched by 

 the siibsericea workers after she had killed two of their number. 



These cases show that the female aserva, like the female ruhicnnda 

 and subiniegra, is by no means a patient inquiline like cousocians, but 

 when severely tweaked is always ready to defend herself with her man- 

 dibles and formic acid batteries. Further inferences in regard to the 

 founding of colonies by this form can hardly be drawn from the above 

 experiments. 



9. Polyergus rufescens lucidus Mayr. 



On returning to my home at Bronxville, New York, early in August, 

 1905, I at once visited a large colony of Polyergus hicidus with F. schau- 

 fussi slaves, which I had had under observation during the summers of 

 1903 and 1904, in the hope of finding a number of virgin females to 

 use for my experiments. I was not to be disappointed, for the nest 

 contained a lot of females and males, fully mature and ready for their 

 nuptial flight. Thirty of the females were secured and confined in an 

 artificial nest with several of their slaves. During the month of 

 August I tried 12 experiments with as many of these females, but in 

 no instance could I observe an adoption of these insects by strange 

 schaufussi workers. The results are varied and conflicting, but as they 

 are suggestive and can be briefly reported, I transcribe several of them 

 from my note-book 



Experiment 44. Aug. 6, 5.30 p.m., a female Polyergtis lucidus was placed in 

 a nest with 15 Formica schaufussi workers, small and medium-sized, taken 

 from an average colony, together with 100 cocoons and 26 larvas. After running 

 about the nest for some time she was seized by a worker, which she killed by 

 running her mandibles through its head. Then further struggles ensued be- 

 tween the two species and resulted in the crippling of two of the workers. By 

 9 p. M., however, the female showed signs of having been injured. Though still 

 able to walk, she was found from time to time lying on her back with sprawling 

 legs. Aug. 7, 6 A.M., there were 7 maimed workers in the nest, showing that 

 the female had had many struggles during the night. She was lying on her 

 back and appeared to be very weak. As she showed no signs of recovering, the 

 experiment was discontinued. 



