LIFE HISTORY. 27 



once, as they can be kept alive for months afterwards in observa- 

 tion nests ; nor are they injured when separating from the female, 

 but they wander aimlessly about, without ever returning to their 

 nests, and most of them are probably eaten by birds, or killed by 

 strange ants and other insects. 



Many females also share the same fate, but those which escape 

 endeavour to found new colonies this is brought about in various 

 ways. 



Colony Founding. It is only within comparatively recent years 

 that it has been possible to give anything like a complete and 

 connected account of the origin of the ant colony. For more than 

 a century this question has occupied the attention of many 

 observers, who, though expressing widely divergent views, have 

 helped by their patient investigation to accumulate evidence 

 without which the present state of knowledge on the subject could 

 not have been reached. 



As far back as 1747 William Gould actually made an experiment 

 on fertile female ants. In his own quaint language he says : " Upon 

 frequent opening of Mole-Hills, amongst them I met with three, 

 in each of which was a Cluster of large Female Ants, amounting 

 to six or seven in a Cluster. They lay near the Surface, but had 

 no regular Apartment. . . . Upon Dissection several of them had 

 Parcels of Eggs in their Insides. I deposited one of the Clusters 

 in a Box with some Earth, under which they concealed themselves, 

 and united together, but did not work any Lodgment. Some Time 

 after, three or four of these Females laid a few Eggs, but did not 

 seem to take any great Notice of them. For Curiosity I placed in 

 the Box, a Cell of Workers of the same Species, and it was sur- 

 prizing to observe what Fondness was expressed. The Common 

 Ants immediately surrounded the Females, took care of the Eggs, 

 and in a short Period made an Apartment in the Earth fit to receive 

 them. It may also be observed that there were no Common Ants 

 in the Hills where I found the above Clusters." 



The above is valuable, not only as showing that fertile females 

 were received by strange workers of their own species, but also 

 because it is the first recorded instance of a number of females 

 after the marriage-flight voluntarily associating together and 

 laying eggs. 



P. Huber (1810) carried experiments on fertile females a stage 

 further. He enclosed several fertilized females in a jar full of 

 damp earth, in which they excavated cells. They laid eggs and 

 brought up several fair-sized larvae, which, however, perished 

 owing to his own neglect. 



The first who actually demonstrated that females, after the 

 marriage-flight, are capable of bringing up their brood to maturity 

 unassisted, was Lord Avebury, in 1876, whose experiment is 

 referred to under Myrmica ruginodis. 



