LEPTOTHORAX. 151 



Cameron records an almost black variety at Kintail 12 , and I have 

 recorded a colony of very dark-coloured specimens found under 

 stones on a mountain at Rannoch 61 . 



Saunders states that the males and females appear in September 31 ; 

 they are, however, generally to be found much earlier in the year. 

 Cameron recorded males on the top of Ben Lawers in July 14 , Carter 

 males and winged females at Comrie in the same month 41 , and 

 Schenck says that this species swarms in July, and that he found 

 the first winged forms on July 5th at Nassau. Forel observed the 

 copulation of this ant, on a wall on Mont Tendre in Switzerland on 

 July 30th, 1871 11 . 



I have found males at Nethy Bridge on June 19th, 1911, males 

 and winged females in the same locality on July 24th, 1907, in the 

 New Forest on July 22nd, 1912, and at Rannoch on July 15th, 

 1913, etc. 



The queens will carry the larvae in their mandibles, and when a 

 nest is disturbed they may be seen to pick up their brood and 

 hurry off into safety, in the same manner as do the workers, but 

 Hamm has told me that he has actually seen the male perform the 

 same action 64 . Forel has shown that the virgin females in captivity 

 lose their wings in two or three days, removing them themselves, 

 and as females with small gasters are often found in a colony, he 

 suggests that it may be to increase the numbers of the colony, as 

 the workers are not numerous and the females help in the work, 

 and also that they may be fertilized in the nest later on by males 

 produced in it 11 . The female, not being larger than the male, is 

 of course unable to carry him during the marriage flight. 



Many microgynes often occur in colonies of Leptoihorax acervorum, 

 side by side with ordinary sized females, and Wasmann records a 

 number of instances of small females, and also intermediate forms 

 between the worker and female, in colonies of this ant in Holland. 



In Dutch Limburg he found individuals which represented every 

 gradation in size and shape between the female and worker 22 , and 

 he points out that microgynes are much more common than 

 macrogynes 30 . 



In a colony at Exaeten in July, 1889, he observed a number of 

 winged females, some with a light yellow-brown thorax, the colour 

 of the worker, and others with the darker colouration of the female, 

 and he records that Dr. Otto Nickerl discovered at Neuhiitt in 

 Bohemia a number of light-coloured winged microgynes, which 

 were smaller than the larger workers of the same colony. In 

 August, 1891, in a colony under a stone at Arlberg Wasmann found 

 a number of intermediate winged females, ranging from large dark 

 macrogynes to small light microgynes 30 . 



He also records a number of forms, intermediate in size, colour, 

 and construction of the thorax, between the female and the worker, 

 taken in a colony at Blijenbeck in September, 1884 30 . 



