vii ATTRACTING QUEENS m 



not altogether free from slugs, centipedes, etc., nor 

 did they keep perfectly dry, so I still found it 

 necessary to replace them with dry ones, and to 

 clear the tunnels, every tenth day or so ; but this 

 was because the weather was showery, for in July, 

 when the ground got dry and hard, the nests 

 remained dry and the vermin left them. 



I found that the chief cause of the nests getting 

 wet was contact with the damp earth. By taking 

 care that they did not touch the sides of the cavity, 

 and by placing discs of tin-plate under them, I was 

 able to keep them much drier. 



As slugs and centipedes were often found and 

 killed in the tunnel when I cleared it, it was evident 

 that they got into the nest-cavity by passing through 

 the tunnel ; I think, however, that some of them 

 travelled through the soil near the surface. The 

 slugs wetted the nests by crawling over them, 

 and so helped to draw moisture into them. 



Although queens were less plentiful than usual, 

 owing to the previous unfavourable season, and 

 although fourteen out of the seventy nests laid down 

 were rendered useless because they were occupied 

 by ants or washed out by floods caused by thunder- 

 storms, twenty-one 1 of them were occupied by queens, 

 and in nine' 2 the larvae span their cocoons. These 

 results showed that the queens much preferred my 

 new wood-covered domiciles to the sod-and-tile 

 covered kind. 



1 13 lapidatius, 3 latreillellus, 1 terrestris, 1 ruderatus, 1 hortorum, 1 

 sylvarum, and 1 species unknown. 



2 5 lapidarhis, 2 latreillellus, I hortorum, and 1 sylvarum. 



