OUR ANTS, 25 



often make the construction, on the strictly normal plan, an 

 impossibility. 



Origin and viaintenance of Communities. — The question as to how 

 communities are formed, is a most interesting one, and its solution 

 is not without importance. For instance, Wallace, in an argument, 

 leans a good deal on the distribution of ants, treating them as 

 * apterous insects.' If however the $ can, unaided, found a colony, 

 the argument becomes useless, for then, the ' ant' ceases, for his 

 purpose, to be an * apterous insect.' There would seem to be three 

 ways in which a nest might conceivably be founded, viz. : — 



1. By a colony being, in some way, cut off from the parent nest. 



2. By a few (or many) ^ joining themselves to a fecund ? , and 

 starting a new nest. 



3. By a fecund $ originating a nest single-handed. 



At one time, it was generally held that the 2nd was the ordinary 

 method, that the 1st was very rare, and that the 3rd was quite 

 exceptional, or indeed impossible. Later observations have quite 

 upset this view. 



Dr. Forel has such an interesting paper in his " Etudes Myrme- 

 Cologiques,'* 1884, that I cannot refrain from making a few 

 extracts. After noting that Lubbock has discovered, and proved, the 

 longevity of ants, which, before, were supposed to live only for 

 one year, or less, he continues : " Another point of the greatest 

 '' importance is, that Lubbock has succeeded in seeing isolated ? of 

 " M. ruginodis, rear, single-handed, from the egg, larvse, pupse, and 

 " perfect 5 * * * Fritz Miiller has arrived at the same result 

 " for the Termites, in so far that, he has shown, that the king and 

 ^' queen undoubtedly live several years. It is no longer necessary 

 '' therefore to hold Hiiber's opinion, viz. :— that a new fecund ? is 

 *' required, each year, to continue the community. Hiiber saw fecund ? 

 " retained by the § , who stripped them of their wings; I have myself 

 " seen this occur, though very rarely, with Lasiusjiavus, but never 

 " with any other species.'* After pointing out the extreme desira- 

 bility of discovering how long a ? retains her fecundity, i. e., " her 

 power of producing 5 and $ , and not nierelycJ, which last, as is 

 well known, can be produced by parthenogenesis," he says : " We are 

 " thus led to believe that, probably, all the individuals of a community 

 4 



