1907.] Wheeler, The Polymorphism of A7its. 33 



leads to a neglect of the female larvae. (It is the counterpart of the rearing 

 of the young cuckoo in the nest of the white-throat!) As a matter of fact, 

 the Lomechusa larvae are the first to be rescued when the nest is disturbed. 

 In general it may be said (according to my observations, in part previously 

 published) that whenever I placed Lomechusoe in strange sanguinea nests, 

 the presence of the beetles themselves often led to a neglect of the brood, 

 and more especially of the large female larvae." 



It will be observed that Wasmann's view, which he styles a theory, rests 

 on several inferences of very different degrees of probability. He may be 

 said to have demonstrated that pseudogynes result from the parasitism of 

 Lomechusa and Atemeles on various species of Formica. His further 

 contention that the pseudogynes are not of blastogenic origin but arise from 

 normal female larvae that have developed under abnormal conditions, must 

 also be granted; especially as it has recently received experimental confir- 

 mation from Viehmeyer.* This investigator removed an aged sanguinea 

 queen from her colony which had for some years been producing pseudo- 

 gynes, owing to the presence of Lomechusa larvae, and caused her to be 

 adopted by a new set of fifty unusually fine workers from an uninfested 

 colony. Her eggs under the changed conditions developed into larvae that 

 gave rise to normal workers. This, of course, proves that the pathogenic 

 conditions cannot have their origin in the queen or in her ova. Wasmann 

 has since published a similar experiment.^ Two sanguinea females belong- 

 ing to a colony from Exaten and containing many pseudogynes were given 

 slaves {F. rufibarbis) from Luxemburg colonies that had never been infested 

 with Lomechusa and Atemeles. During four consecutive years the offspring 

 of these females developed only into normal workers. 



Up to this point Wasmann's hypothesis seems to rest on firm foundations, 

 but as much cannot be said of his explanation of the pseudogynes as the 

 abortive results of a belated attempt on the part of the workers to transmute 

 female larvae into workers. He here steps on debatable grounds. It seems 

 to me that he has come nearer the truth in that portion of the quotation above 

 cited where he calls attention to the neglect of the female larvae by their 

 nurses, for it is natural to suppose that these neglected larvae would be able 

 to pupate and produce pseudogynes without any active intervention on the 

 part of the workers such as the administration of a particular kind or quantity 

 of nourishment. The great variation in stature among normal Formica 

 workers on the one hand, and among females on the other, shows that there 

 must be wide limits of larval stature within which spontaneous pupation 



> Experimente zu Wasmann's Lomechusa-Pseudogynen-Theorie. Allgem. Zeitschr. f. En- 

 tom., IX 1904, pp. 334-344. 



2 Ameisenarbeiterinnen als Ersatzkoniginnen, etc., loc. cit. p. 69. 



{January, 1907.] S 



