32 RELUCTANCE TO ADOPT A NEW QUEEN. 
it is, indeed, far from improbable that this may occur. 
No clear case has, however, yet been observed. M. de 
St. Fargeau himself observes’ that ‘ les particularités 
qui accompagnent la formation premiére dune four- 
miliére sont encore incertaines et mériteraient d’étre 
observées avec soin.’ 
Under these circumstances I made the following 
experiments :— 
la. 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 attacked 
her. 
b. I repeated the experiment, with the same result. 
c. Do. do. Inthis case the nest to which the queen 
was transferred was without a queen; still they would 
not receive her. 
dande. 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. 
The following observation shows that, at any rate 
in some cases, isolated queen ants are capable of giving 
origin to a new community. 
On August 14, 1876, I isolated two pairs of Myr- 
nica ruginodis which I found flying in my garden. I 
placed them with damp earth, food, and water, and 
they continued perfectly healthy through the winter. 
! Hist. Nat. des Ins. Hyménoptires, vol. i. p. 144, 
