FORMICA. 277 



Linz am Rhein where exsecta was common, the inhabitants of nests 

 only three metres away from each other were enemies 31 . 



I have, however, found these ants from the same locality to be 

 friendly with each other, even after being separated for a long 

 interval. 



On April 26th, 1909, I took a small colony of exsecta in Park- 

 hurst Forest, consisting of a deflated female and a number of 

 workers, and established them at home in a combined " Fielde and 

 Janet " nest, and on May 15th, 1910, 1 obtained about one hundred 

 workers, some eggs and larvae (the queen was not found) from a 

 colony near the same spot, and introduced them into my nest, 

 which I wanted to strengthen, as many workers had died, only the 

 queen and seven workers remaining. The new and old workers 

 were quite friendly together, much excitement prevailed, and a 

 great deal of tapping of antennae took place all round. The eggs 

 and larvae were collected into a heap in one corner of the nest 

 and the queen rested upon them ; no fighting took place, no dead 

 ants were present next day, and the nest was kept under observa- 

 tion for some years 38 . 



F. Smith endeavoured in June, 1868, to establish a colony of 

 exsecta in his garden at Islington, and he writes : " On the morning 

 of my leaving Bournemouth, I rose early, and, taking a spade and 

 a tin box, I set out for the purpose of obtaining a nest of Formica 

 exsecta. At the early hour of five o'clock, I found a nest with its 

 inmates apparently in quiet repose, not an ant was to be 

 seen. . . ." 



He dug up the nest without disturbing it and brought it bodily 

 to London, where he established it in his garden at Islington. 



" On the following morning I visited my ants' nest, when, what 

 was my astonishment, on beholding a line of black ants extending 

 from the nest to the root of a lilac tree in the corner of the garden ; 

 one troop of ants were on their way from the tree to the nest, 

 whilst another was travelling in the opposite direction ; each ant 

 laden either with a larva or pupa of Formica exsecta." 



At first he suggested that he had discovered Formica (i.e. 

 Donisthorpea) nigra in the character of a slave-making ant a quite 

 impossible solution but subsequently he realized the true state of 

 affairs and he goes on 



" I was, however, doomed to be again disappointed ; in a few 

 days every larva, pupa, and worker was conveyed into the nest of 

 Formica nigra, and from that time, the most careful watching 

 failed to discover any trace of Formica exsecta ; I have not any 

 doubt of the whole contents of the nest having become the food 

 of the colony of the black ants." 8 



Forel, however, was more successful in Switzerland ; on June 

 12th, 1871, he brought a large quantity of ants taken from the 

 colony of exsecta at Mont Tendre, before mentioned, to Vaux, and 



