420 Miscellaneous. 
times observed queens wandering solitary), they must have removed 
the plug or “door,” and restored it to its place again upon re-entrance. 
However, he believed it to be guite within the bounds of proba- 
bility that a well-fed queen could live without additional food for 
several weeks—a period long enough to rear a small brood, and also 
feed the larvee from the contents of her crop, which might serve as a 
storehouse of food, as was explained by illustrations of the anatomy 
of the alimentary canal. 
In the same receptacle with the queens were found:—(1) the 
white oval or cylindrical eggs of the species; (2) larvae of various 
sizes, from those just escaped out of the egg (2:3 millim. long) to 
full-grown (about 10 millim.); (3) the cocoons, or enclosed pupe ; 
and in one case (4) a callow antling, which had evidently just 
escaped from its case. This antling was, as indeed all the larvee 
and cocoons appeared to be, of the dwarf caste. There are three 
castes in a formicary of Camponotus: the worker-major, the worker- 
minor, and the minim or dwarf. We may infer that the latter caste 
is the one which is first produced in rearing a family. 
In response to a remark and suggestion made, that the imperfect 
nurture given to the larvee, under the peculiar circumstances, might 
account for the appearance of small workers first in order, Dr. 
McCook stated that, whatever one might conjecture to have been 
the fact in the remote origin of these castes among ants, it is certain 
that when the formicary has been fully peopled with workers, and 
the food-supply is unlimited, the several castes still continue to 
appear. Minims, minors, and majors not only abound among the 
mature insects, but are found among the larvae and cocoons. These 
distinctions are a permanent feature of the ant economy ; and while 
it is perhaps not permitted one to say that they are not caused by 
differences in amount or character of the nurture given in the larval 
state, yet this did not seem at all probable to the speaker. Tke 
fact that, in some genera, the workers have also remarkable diffe- 
rences in structure (as of the head, for example, in Phetdole and 
Pogonomyrmex crudelis) goes to show that differentiation into castes 
is regulated by something other than the food-supply. 
The above observations are valuable as proving that the females 
of Camponotus, when fertilized, go solitary, and after dispossessing 
themselves of their wings, begin the work of founding a new family. 
This work they carry on until enough workers are reared to 
attend to the active duties of the formicary, as tending and feeding 
the young, enlarging the domicile, &«. After that, the queens 
generally limit their duty to the laying of eggs, and, as the speaker 
had elsewhere fully described*, are continually guarded and re- 
stricted in their movements by a circle of attendant workers, or 
“court.” 
The above facts are further illustrated and enlarged by a series 
of observations made by Mr. Edward Potts, in accordance with the 
* Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sci. 1879, p. 140; ‘ Agricultural Ants of Texas,’ 
p- 144; ‘ Honey and Occident Ants,’ p. 41. 
