324 BRITISH ANTS. 



small ^ ; mandibles ^ ; antennae shape and size of ^, 12- jointed, outer half 

 of left scape blackish brown longitudinally, right scape with a blackish brown 

 patch on outer anterior corner. Thorax $, reddish yellow, with larger and 

 smaller blackish brown spots dotted irregularly about ; pronotum with distinct 

 outstanding yellow hairs ; metanotum furnished on left side with a short 

 deformed wing, 2 mm. in length, right side with only a small chitinous tubercle. 

 Scale $ ; gaster long, but with sculpture, pubescence, and bristles of ^ ; 

 < genitalia, short, thick, and deformed, exposed at apex of gaster. Legs 

 intermediate between <J and ; coxae, femora, and tibiae of intermediate 

 and posterior pairs infuscate, rest of legs and tarsi yellowish, left posterior 

 leg with femora and tibia deformed, bowed. Long. 8 mm. 



Wasmann has found that gynaecoid workers occur, one, or more, 

 acting as substitute queens in queenless nests of rufibarbis. At 

 Luxemburg in 1904 he possessed two such workers which were 

 treated as are true queens, being fed and cleaned and attended on 

 by the workers ; their gasters were swollen and they laid a number 

 of eggs. He says this proves that it is possible for ants, by better 

 feeding, to bring up ordinary workers, after they have hatched, 

 as egg-laying individuals, and use them as substitutes in the place 

 of true females 33 . 



In his experience it is not usual to find many, or more than one 

 deflated female in a rufibarbis nest ; I have, however, found five, 

 three, and two dealated females in single nests at Wey bridge. 



Nylander found the males and winged females in the nests in 

 Finland from July 20th to August 10th 8 ; Schenck gives July 9th 

 to 21st at Nassau 12 , but he captured a male on October 3rd, and 

 he says the winged females are much less abundant than the 

 males, as he only once found the former, but frequently observed 

 the latter in many nests 12 14 this has also been the case in my 

 experience at Weybridge. Smith mentions a winged female which 

 was captured in flight by .S. Stevens on April 18th, 1851 n but 

 this would probably be a specimen from the year before which had 

 passed the winter in the nest and Forel records the winged forms 

 in the nests in Switzerland in June, July, and August. 23 



The occurrence of the sexes appears to be very erratic with this 

 species, and I was never able to find any until 1914, having dug 

 up rufibarbis nests for three years at Weybridge in May, June, 

 July, August, and September and neither males or winged females, 

 nor sex larvae or pupae occurred. 



On June 5th, 1914, a nest was found which at last contained 

 large (sex) larvae, a few of which I took home and introduced into 

 my rufibarbis observation nest, but as the workers would not have 

 anything to do with them throwing them out of the nest every 

 time I put them back I returned them to their own nest at Wey- 

 bridge, where they were taken in by the workers. On July 1st I 

 went down again, but found that my nest had been dug up and 

 destroyed ; however three more colonies were discovered, only one 

 of which contained sex pupae. A few of these large cocoons were 

 taken home, two of them were introduced into my observation 



