208 Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis 
queens and et This exodus lasted for one-half hour, or 
until m., when then only a few stragglers remained 
near the pot from where they emerged. 
At about this time, 7:15 a. m., I noticed a repetition of the 
same performance some twenty feet away. Hundreds of winged 
ants were issuing forth from under a flat stone and flying into 
the air; this lasted one-half hour and here, too, there were many 
Ww ingless yellow-brown workers among the winged adults. When 
I examined the stone at 7 a. m., there was no sign of activity, 
but almost simultaneously all crowded out of the nest at 7:15 
a. m., and “45 a. m., all activity was over. It is interest- 
ing to compare the hour ‘of the day when emer gence occurred. 
In the two colonies of 1932, the exodus took place in the early 
morning hours, while in 1929 it occurred in the afternoon. 
This colony proved more entertaining than the first one 
off the wingless worker ants. They did not venture into the 
thick of the excitement, but picked them off the outside margin 
of the ring and carried them off bodily. The workers of Lasius 
fought back desperately and even attached themselves to the 
legs of their adversaries with their mandibles; they did not 
succeed however in staying their enemies’ progress but instead 
were often dragged to the nest. One could sometimes see an 
aggressor making off with an adult in her jaws, and at the 
same time drag along an ant clinging to her legs. 
Lasius niger var. neoniger [M. R. Smith] 
I never suspected that there were so many nests of vs ant 
about my home, but in an area of about one acre unted 
more than 100 colonies nesting on the lawn on August 14, 1932. 
These nests would have gone unnoticed except that on that day 
an exodus occurred, and great numbers of ants left the nests 
and filled the air. 
The large winged queens, as tiny winged males and also 
the wingless workers were on top of the ground about each 
nest in great numbers. In most of the colonies the males pre- 
dominated and the workers and queens were less in number, 
but from one nest came an enormous number of winged queens. 
In most colonies however the males outnumbered the queens by 
six to one. They were all moving about nervously in a circum- 
scribed area about each nest and often one could see them rise 
in flight and soar awkwardly awa 
e flickers were especially abundant on the lawn at that 
time a the birds were exuberantly feasting upon the manna. 
Dr. . Turner describes a similar mating flight of Lasius 
niger on September 17, 1913, at St. Louis, Mo., (Journ. Animal 
