270 STR JOHN LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



from improbable that this may occur. No clear case has, how- 

 ever, yet been observed. 



Under these circumstances I made the following experiments: — 



1 «. I took an old, fertile, queen from a nest of Lasius flavus, 

 and put her to another nest of the same species. The workers 

 became very excited and killed her. 



h. I repeated the experiment, with the same result. 



c. Do. do. In this case the nest to which the queen was trans- 

 ferred was without a queen ; still they would not receive her. 



d and e. Do. do. do. 



I conclude, then, that, at any rate in the case of L. flavus, the 

 workers will not adopt an old queen from another nest. 



2. I took an old, fertile queen of the same species and 

 placed her by herself with damp earth, food, and water. In a few 

 days, however, she died. 



The following, however, shows that whether or not ants' nests 

 sometimes originate in the two former modes or not, at any rate 

 in some cases isolated queen ants are capable of giving origin to 

 a new community. 



On the 14th Aug. 1876, I isolated two pairs of Myrmica rugi- 

 nodis which I found flying in my garden. I placed them with 

 damp earth, food, and water, and they continued perfectly healthy 

 through the winter. In April, however, one of the males died, 

 and the second in the middle of May. The first eggs were laid 

 between the 12th and 23rd April. They began to hatch the first 

 week in June, and the first turned into a chrysalis on the 27th ; 

 a second on the 30th ; a third on the 1st July, when there were 

 also seven larvse and two eggs. On the 8th there was another 

 egg. On the 8th July a fourth larva had turned into a pupa. 

 On the 11th July I 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 21st a fifth larva had turned 

 into a pupa, and there were about 20 eggs. On the 22nd July 

 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 the 5th Aug. 

 The eggs appeared to be less numerous, and some had probably been 

 devoured. 



This experience shows that the queens of Myrmica ruginodis 



