72 Chapter II. 



of auxiliary ants. In reality the very reverse happens. 

 The most populous sanguinea colonies do not contain 

 the relatively greatest but the relatively smallest num- 

 ber of slaves. We formerly (in "Die Zusammengesetz- 

 ten Nester" p. 50) alluded to this fact, which shall now 

 be explained and proved at greater length. In order 

 to show the connection between the rearing of Lome- 

 chusa strumosa in the sanguinea nests and the educa- 

 tion of a strange, crippled kind of workers, the 

 so-called pseudo-females or pseudogynes,^ I drew up 

 an accurate statistical map of the sanguinea colonies 

 in the neighborhood of Exaten. It comprises 410 

 colonies with more than 2,000 nests.^ Regarding the 

 number of slaves, the statistics showed that in most 

 colonies the masters were from three to six times more 

 numerous than the slaves. The most populous colonies 

 contain scarcely 50 to 100 slaves, sometimes even less 

 or none at all. In the middle-sized or weaker colonies, 

 however, the absolute number of slaves amounts in 

 most cases to several hundred. The average propor- 

 tion of masters and slaves in the most populous 

 colonies is from 100:1 to 10:1, in the middle-sized 

 and weak colonies, however, from 3:1 to 1:1. Nor 

 are these the ultimate limits assigned to the number 

 of slaves found in the nests of these ants. In May, 

 1890, and from 1896 to 1898 I found near Exaten 

 several strong sanguinea colonies without any slaves.^ 



1) "Die ergatogynen Formen bei den Ameisen und ihre Erklae- 

 rung," in "Biolog. Centralbl.," Vol. XV (1895), Nos. 16 and 17. 



2) A colony of F. sanguinea not unfrequently embraces several 

 nests, often one or more metres distant from one another, inhabited 

 all at the same time or alternately. 



3) To similar colonies of F. sanguinea of the race rubicunda in 

 North America we must probably refer the F. sanguinea race aserva 

 of Forel, who described it lately from Toronto (Canada), (Ann. Soc. 

 Ent. Belg. XLV, 1901, p. 395). 



