28 BRITISH ANTS. 



It was subsequently assumed that all species of ants founded 

 their colonies in this way. Modern researches however have shown 

 that though this is true for the large majority of ants, many species 

 employ very different methods. 



Some writers have proposed elaborate classifications of all the 

 different methods of founding a colony, but space does not permit 

 me to discuss them here. 



The following table, taken from a paper on the founding of colonies 

 by queen ants read at the Entomological Congress at Oxford by 

 Crawley and myself, briefly shows all the known methods in which 

 a colony may arise : 



I. (a) The female ant, after the marriage-flight, removes her 



wings, seeks a suitable situation, constructs a cell, and 

 brings up her colony alone. 



(b) Several such females may voluntarily associate and found 

 a colony in a similar manner. 



II. The female seeks a nest of another species of ant, is adopted 



willingly or otherwise by the workers, who bring up her 

 brood. In some manner the host-queen, if present, is 

 eliminated. Then either (a) in course of time the host 

 colony dies out, and a pure colony of the female's species 

 remains ; or (b) the mixed character of the colony is kept 

 up by means of slave-raids on nests of the host species by 

 the female's offspring. 



HI. The female is adopted into a colony of another species and 

 lives side by side with the rightful queen. The intruder's 

 offspring of all sexes, but only workers of the host species, 

 are reared together in the nest. 



IV. Differs from II (a) only by the fact that, the species of the 

 alien queen having no worker caste, the colony only lasts 

 for the lifetime of the host workers. 



Group I may be considered to represent the normal 

 method, and Groups II, III, and IV the abnormal methods. 



In both I and II after the colony has become established, young 

 females reared there may be received back into it, or may enter 

 another colony of their own species after the marriage-flight. 

 The fertilized female removes her wings by working them back- 

 wards and forwards, pulling them with her legs and mandibles, or 

 rubbing them against twigs, grass-stalks, or anything handy. 

 In some cases young females which have been fertilized on, or 

 near, their own nest, will be brought back by the workers, who 

 help them to remove the wings. 



The shedding of the wings by a fertile female alters her instincts, 

 causing her to become more timid, and to shun the light. Indeed 

 Wheeler has shown that, with some species, the artificial deflation 



