198 BRITISH ANTS. 



crowded chamber ; one worker saluted her and another dragged her 

 further in by a mandible, but eventually she was attacked and 

 killed before evening. On December 13th another dealated female 

 was put into a small plaster nest with some of the workers from the 

 same umbrata nest as in the former experiment. She was slightly 

 attacked but made no resistance, and endeavoured to conciliate her 

 assailants by stroking them with her antennae. When a worker 

 endeavours to bite at the waist of one of these females, she protects 

 it by crossing her hind legs over her back, and when at the neck, 

 by pressing her head back close against the thorax. A few more 

 workers were added, and on December 20th she was introduced 

 with the workers into the umbrata nest. She was a little attacked 

 by workers who had not seen her before, but the old workers 

 protected her, getting between her and the others, and pulling 

 them away by the leg, but very soon all hostility ceased, and she 

 was evidently accepted. Many workers surrounded her, caressed 

 and fed her, and all went well till April, when, a number of the 

 workers having died off, some four hundred more were obtained 

 from the Wey bridge nest and introduced. These new-comers 

 attacked the queen, though they were quite friendly with their 

 sister workers, and as they persistently refused to accept her, she 

 was removed and returned to her own nest on April 21st. The 

 fuliginosa workers were very excited at her appearance in their 

 nest, and she was much pulled about, but eventually lost sight of 

 among the crowds of ants. On July 23rd a female with her gaster 

 enormously dilated was noticed in the fuliginosa nest, with a 

 large pile of eggs and surrounded by workers, which may possibly 

 have been the female of the above experiment. 



In the next experiment a female fuliginosa was still more easily 

 received into the other umbrata nest and by December 16th she 

 was completely accepted. On March 22nd, 1911, another fuli- 

 ginosa was introduced into this nest and was immediately accepted 

 without any hostility whatever, as was the case with two more 

 which were introduced in April, but subsequently removed. The 

 two queens first introduced in this experiment began to lay on 

 May 17th, 1911, for the first time, and these eggs hatched on 

 August 9th. In 1912 they began to lay on June 29th, and laid 

 more eggs than during the previous year, but nothing came of 

 these. Some of the larvae which hatched in August, 1911, were 

 nearly full grown in the summer of 1912, but they remained in this 

 condition until 1914. A larva first pupated on June 23rd, 1914, and 

 several more subsequently, but none of them reached the perfect 

 state. As these were from eggs laid in May, 1911, it will be seen 

 that they took over three years to develop as far as the pupal 

 stage ! 



In 1913 I made a similar experiment with a nest of Donisthorpea 

 mixto-umbrata obtained at Weybridge on August llth, 1912, and 



