ORIGIN OF A NEST OF MYRMICA. 33 



In April one of the males died, and the second in the 

 middle of May. The first eggs were laid between April 

 12 and 23. 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 July 1, 

 when there were also seven larvae and two eggs. On 

 the 8th there was another egg. On July 8 a fourth 

 had turned into a pupa. On July 111 found 

 there were six eggs, and on the 14th about ten. On the 

 15th one of the pupae began to turn brown, and the 

 eggs were about 15 in number. On the 16th a second 

 pupa began to turn brown. On the 2 1 st a fifth larva 

 had turned into a pupa, and there were about 20 eggs. 

 On July 22 the first worker emerged, and a sixth larva 

 had changed. On the 25th I observed the young worker 

 carrying the larvae about when I looked into the nest ; 

 a second worker was coming out. On July 28 a third 

 worker emerged, and a fourth on Aug 5. The eggs 

 appeared to be less numerous, and some had probably 

 been devoured. 



This experiment shows that the queens of Myrmica 

 ruffinodis have the instinct of bringing up larvae and the 

 power of founding communities. The workers remained 

 about six weeks in the egg, a month in the state of 

 larvae, and twenty-five to twenty-seven days as pupae. 



Since, however, cases are on record in which com- 

 munities are known to have existed for many years, 

 it seems clear that fresh queens must be sometimes 

 adopted. I have indeed recorded several experiments 



D 



