180 Mr. H. St. KOK. Donisthorpe’s Observations on 
which I dug up in the same neighbourhood contained any 
fusca 3 9. 
We now come to the Lasiuvs group. The queens of 
Lasius niger, alienus, and flavus found their own colonies 
in the method originally attributed to all ants. That is to 
say, the queen after her marriage flight removes her 
wings, and, finding a suitable spot, lays her eggs and brings 
up her own brood. I have often found queens of at least 
two of these species under such circumstances in nature. 
This, however, is not the case with our other two species, 
L. umbratus and L. fuliginosus. In both instances the 2 
is smaller in comparison to her 8 9 than is the case with 
L. niger and flavus, ete. 
Lasius umbratus, Nyl. —It is exceedingly probable that 
the wmbratus 2 founds her colonies in nests of LZ. niger. 
Wasmann has found mixed nests of these two species 
which could only be explained by this hypothesis. 
Crawley’s very valuable experiments have proved that 
the O% of niger will readily accept 2? of wmbratus. 
L. niger is a very common and widely-distributed ant; 
wmbratus is decidedly scarce, though widely distributed, 
and more than one colony is seldom found in one spot. 
It is perhaps worth while to mention that Barnes recorded 
finding nine deiilated 2 9 of wmbratus in a nest of F. san- 
guinea at Wellington College. I have on several occasions 
found many wmbratus 3 3 in company with F. sanguinea 
at Woking. These, however, may not have really been 
living together. As Wasmann points out in his paper on 
mixed Lasivs nests, species may be found which are ap- 
parently mixed, but which when confined in a box attack 
and kill each other. This, of course, is never the case 
with truly mixed nests. 
Lasius fuliginosus, Ltr—This ant often founds new 
colonies by branch nests, as in the ¥. rufa group. This 
accounts for the fact that in a district where /uliginosus 
occurs, so many colonies are often to be found. The 2, 
however, is unable to found her own colony. She entersa 
nest of L. wmbratus and is accepted by the workers. This 
is a case of hyper- (temporary) social parasitism, as we have 
just seen that wmbratus founds its colonies with niger. 
Recent writings of Crawley, Emery, Forel, Lannoy, Was- 
mann, and Wheeler all substantiate this fact. Workers 
of wmbratus have been frequently found in nests of fuligi- 
nosus; these would be all that were left of the original 
