ee 
pee) 
chibitions. 
QurEN Ants In Nests or oTHER Specres.—Mr. H. Donis- 
THORPE exhibited a nest of Lasius wmbratus, Nyl., which had 
accepted a 2 L. fuliginosus. The wmbratus nest was dug up by 
Mr. Crawley and the exhibitor at Weybridge on December 8th, 
and contained about 400 § % and thirty virgin (winged) ? ?. 
On December 13th a deiilated 9 L. fuliginosus was put into a 
small plaster nest with a dozen of the wmbratus 3 9; she 
was slightly attacked, but not in any way injured, and tried 
to conciliate the 3 % by stroking them with her antennae ; 
she protected her waist by crossing the back legs over it, and 
her neck by pressing the head back against the thorax. The 
umbratus 9 & were increased to over twenty, and on December 
20th the /uliginosus 2 and all the 9 9 were introduced into the 
big nest. She endeavoured to join the wmbratws where they 
were most numerous, and some of those that had previously 
been with her protected her when any of the others endeavoured 
to attack her. By December 21st she was accepted by the 
whole nest, and has been treated as their queen ever since. 
Only one or two % % occasionally threatened her with their 
jaws, though the first fuliginosus 9 placed in the nest was 
killed. The § &% killed most of their own virgin ? 9. 
Mr. W. C. Crawtry also exhibited a case containing a 
colony of Lasius umbratus with a L. fuliginosus 2? as queen, 
a case of ‘‘temporary social parasitism” suspected, but not 
hitherto demonstrated. The other half of the case contained, 
for comparison, a colony of LZ. niger with a L. umbratus queen, 
a similar case of “temporary social parasitism” known to the 
exhibitor since 1896. He mentioned that deilated ? 2 do 
not always behave as if fertilised, the ? in this nest being 
restless, as the winged ? 9 are before the marriage flight. 
Dr. CHapmMan began a discussion as to whether this form of 
“parasitism ” was in the long run profitable to the parasitised 
species, by weeding out the weaker nests; the PREsIDENT, 
Mr. VERRALL, and Mr. G. A. K. MarsHatt also joined in the 
discussion. 
TEMPERATURE EXPERIMENTS ON Pupar.—Mr. F. MERRIFIELD 
exhibited a box of specimens of Selenia bilunaria, and read the 
following note on the question whether temperature in the 
