in.] COMMUNITIES OF ANTS. 93 



observations, and those of Ebrard, that such a fact 

 could not occur. Lepeletier de St. Fargeau was of 

 opinion that ants' nests originate in the second mode 

 indicated above, and it is indeed far from improbable 

 that this may occur. No clear case has, however, yet 

 been observed. 



Under these circumstances, I made various experi- 

 ments, in order if possible to solve the question. For 

 instance, I took an old fertile queen from a nest of 

 Lasius flavus, and put her to another nest of the same 

 species. The workers became very excited and killed 

 her. I repeated the experiment, with the same result, 

 more than once. 



I conclude then, that, at any rate in the case of 

 Lasius flavus, the workers will not adopt an old queen 

 from another nest. 



The following facts show that whether ants' nests 

 sometimes originate in the two former modes or not, 

 at any rate in some cases isolated queen ants are 

 capable of giving origin to a new community. On the 

 14th August, 1876, I isolated two pairs of Myrmica 

 ruginodis. which I found flying in my garden. I placed 

 them with damp earth, food, and water, and they 

 continued perfectly healthy through the winter. In 

 April, however, one of the males died, and the second 

 in the middle of May. The first eggs were laid between 

 the 12th and 23rd April. They began to hatch, the first 

 week in June, and the first larva turned into a chrysalis 

 on the 27th; a second on the 30th; 'a third on the 

 1st of July, when there were also seven larvae and two 

 eggs. On the 8th there was another egg. On the 

 8th July a fourth larva had turned into a pupa. On 



