THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE CARPENTER ANT. 



JOHN LOSSEN PRICER. 



Table of Contents. 



Introduction 177 



Material and Methods 177 



Life History of a Colony 178 



Polymorphism 190 



Division of Labor 194 



Food 197 



Relations to Light and Color 199 



Architecture and Economic Relations 204 



Guests and Parasites , 206 



Instincts and Intelligence 209 



Bibliography 218 



Introduction. 



The studies reported in this paper were undertaken originally 

 with the purpose of applying to another species of ants some of 

 the tests and experiments which have yielded interesting results 

 to other investigators, and incidentally I have been led to endeavor 

 to work out the life history of a colony. In respect to the ecol- 

 ogy of my species I have not aimed at completeness in any divi- 

 sion, but have taken up whatever was at once most available 

 under my conditions and most promising of results within the 

 time at my disposal. 



The work was done in the graduate school of the University 

 of Illinois, as a part of the requirement for the degree of Master of 

 Arts, and under the immediate supervision of Dr. S. A. Forbes, 

 to whom I am deeply indebted for his many kindly and helpful 

 suggestions and criticisms. 



Material and Methods. 

 Two varieties of Camponotus herculaneus — C. pemisylvanicus, 

 and C. ferrugineus — were made the basis of this work. So far 

 as I have been able to learn, these varieties have exactly the same 

 habits, the only difference noted being that C. pemisylvanicus is 

 slightly more abundant in this region than the other variety. 

 The colonies used in my experiments were, for the most part, 



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