176 SIE J. LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



known to have existed for many years, it seems clear that fresh 

 queens must be sometimes adopted. I have indeed recorded 

 several experiments in which fertile queens introduced into 

 queenless nests were ruthlessly killed, and subsequent experiments 

 have always had the same result. Mr. Jenner Pust, however, 

 suggested to me to introduce the queen into the nest, as is done 

 with bees, in a wire cage, and leave her there for two or three 

 days, so that the workers might, as it were, get accustomed to her. 

 Accordingly I procured a queen of F.fusca and put her with some 

 honey in a queenless nest, enclosed in a wire cage so that the ants 

 could not get at her. After three days I let her out, but she was 

 at once attacked. On the contrary, Mr. McCook reports the 

 following case of the adoption of a fertile queen of Cremastogaster 

 lineolata by a colony of the same species * : — " The queen," he 

 says, " was taken in Fairmount Park, April 16th, and on May 

 14th following was introduced to workers of a nest taken the same 

 day. The queen was alone within an artificial glass formicary, and 

 several workers were introduced. One of these soon found the 

 queen, exhibited much excitement but no hostility, and imme- 

 diately ran to her sister workers, all of whom were presently clus- 

 stered upon the queen. As other workers were gradually intro- 

 duced they joined their comrades, until the body of the queen 

 (who is much larger than the workers) was nearly covered with 

 them. They appeared to be holding on by their mandibles to the 

 delicate hairs upon the female's body, and continually moved 

 their antennse caressingly. This sort of attention continued until 

 the queen, escorted by workers, disappeared in one of the galle- 

 ries. She was entirely adopted, and thereafter was often seen 

 moving freely, or attended by guards, about the nest, at times 

 engaged in attending the larvse and nymphs which had been in- 

 troduced with the workers of the strange colony. The workers 

 were fresh from their own natural home, and the queen had been 

 in an artificial home for a month." 



Possibly the reason for the difference may be that my ants had 

 been long living in a republic, for, I am informed, that if bees 

 have been long without a queen it is impossible to induce them 

 to accept another. 



Moreover, I have found that when I put a queen with a few 



* Proc. Acad. Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1879. " Note on the Adoption 

 of an Ant-Queen," by Mr. McCook, p. 139. 



