308 BRITISH ANTS. 



8th August, 1888, when she must have been nearly 15 years old, 

 and is therefore by far the oldest insect on record." 34 



He also had, in 1880, five queens developed in one of his fusca 

 nests, and as the nest had been under observation since April, 

 1879, the eggs must have been laid in captivity. He suggests 

 that, as the nest had been richly supplied with animal food, this 

 may possibly account for the fact, and that ants possess the power 

 of developing a given egg into either a queen or a worker 30 . 



As far as I am aware this is the only case in which a queen has 

 been developed from eggs laid in captivity (see footnote p. 42). 



Microgynes are often abundant in colonies of this species ; 

 Wasmann records such females in fusca nests at Exaeten in August, 

 1890 36 , and subsequently in plenty at Luxemburg 45 ; Arnold 

 found winged microgynes in three nests of fusca in the New Forest 

 in July, 1909 ; he says no normal females occurred, but normal 

 males were present in two of the nests 46 ; and Mitford gave me a 

 very small dealated microgyne, which he had taken in a colony of 

 fusca at Rothes in Moray shire in 1912, this specimen being no 

 larger than a medium-sized worker. 55 



I found these small females in abundance in fusca nests at 

 Tenby in April, 1913 60 , all being dealated and in company with 

 normal dealated queens, and again on Lundy Island in June of the 

 same year, some specimens being winged and others with wing 

 stumps 56 . 



Wasmann describes a number of forms of F. fusca pseudogynes 

 from Holland and Luxemburg 44 , but I do not know of a single 

 pseudogyne of fusca ever having been found in Britain. 



Forel has found the males and winged females in the nests in 

 Switzerland in June, July, and August 25 , and I have found them in 

 the nests in Britain in the same three months, and also in Septem- 

 ber ; sometimes they occur together, sometimes only one sex will 

 be present in a nest. 



Malloch records finding a winged female in a, fusca nest in April 39 , 

 Dalglish says he has seen them in March 40 , and Crawley and I 

 observed twelve winged females in a fusca nest at Porlock on 

 April 27th, 1911, but these are only cases where they have passed 

 the winter in the nest, not having left for the marriage flight the 

 year before. 



Schenck says this species swarms in July and the beginning of 

 August 15 , Mayr midsummer 16 , and Andre the middle to the end of 

 the summer 29 . A. Miiller records that at 8.50 in the morning of 

 August 18th, 1872, he captured a female F. fusca which was flying 

 across the road, at South Norwood, with a drooping flight, and he 

 found that she was in simultaneous copulation with two males aside 

 of each other 19 . 



It appears to me more probable that the species Miiller caught 

 was really Donisthorpea nigra ; it is doubtful whether any of the 



