32 RELUCTANCE TO ADOPT A NEW QUEEN. 



it is, indeed, far from improbable that this may occur. 

 No clear case has, however, yet been observed. M. de 

 St. Fargeau himself observes ' that ' les particularit^s 

 qui accompagnent la formation premiere d'une four- 

 mili^re sont encore incertaines et meriteraient d'etre 

 observees avec soin.' 



Under these circumstances I made the following 

 experiments : — 



la. I took an old, fertile, queen from a nest of 

 Lasius flavus, and put her to another nest of the same 

 species. The workers became very excited and attacked 

 her. 



6. I repeated the experiment, with the same result. 



c. Do. do. In this case the nest to which the queen 

 was transferred was without a queen ; still they would 

 not receive her. 



d and e. Do. do. do. 



I conclude, then, that, at any rate in the case of L. 

 flavus, the workers will not adopt an old queen from 

 another nest. 



The following observation shows that, at any rate 

 in some cases, isolated queen ants are capable of giving 

 origin to a new community. 



On August 14, 1876, I isolated two pairs of Myr- 

 mica ruginodis which I found flying in my garden. I 

 placed them with damp earth, food, and water, and 

 they continued perfectly healthy through the winter. 



' Mitt. Nat. de» Int. Hymenojit^es, vol. i. p. 144. 



