134 SIE JOn^f LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 



some improbability in the idea that ants should be deceived 

 as to their own sisters. M. Liindstrom has found, seeds of this 

 species in auts' nests, but has not actually seen ants carrying 

 them off, and I thouglit it would be worth while to determine 

 this. 



Accordingly I took 10 seeds and placed them just outside one 

 of my domesticated nests of Lasius niger. A certain number of 

 ants were outside, and I saw several come up to the seeds, but 

 they took no notice of them. I left them lying there for two days. 

 I then tried them with another nest, the roof of which consisted 

 of two plates of glass, side by side, but with an interval between 

 them. I placed the seeds in this interval, and uncovered one of 

 the sides. The ants immediately began carrying the pupse which 

 were thus exposed to the light to the other, covered part of 

 the nest, in doing which they necessarily passed close to the 

 seeds, but they did not take the slightest notice of them. This 

 operation was finished by 11 a.m., and I left them undisturbed 

 till 12, the seeds remaining unnoticed and untouched. I then 

 moved the cover from one half of the nest to the other, and the 

 ants immediately began transporting the pupae to the shaded 

 half. One or two of them examined the seeds, not one of which, 

 however, was moved. This took about an hour. At 4 p.m., 

 however, three of the seeds had been carried in, and the next 

 day, at 7 a.m., two more seeds had been carried in. I then 

 removed them, and put them just outside one of my nests of 

 F. fusca. 



Aug. 31. 7 A.M. None have been touched. I now put the 

 covering close to, but not over them. The ants took no notice 

 of them. 



Sept. 2. I now placed them just in the entrance of the nest 

 and covered over a part just outside. The ants collected as 

 usual under the cover. I then removed the cover just inside the 

 nest, so that the ants to reach it had to pass among the seeds. 

 They, however, came in, but did not move a single seed. I once 

 again moved tlie cover outside, and they followed it as before, 

 but without moving the seeds. 



So far as these observations go it would seem that F. fusca 

 takes no notice of these seeds, but that they really are under 

 certain circumstances carried olf by Lasius niger. 



"Wasps. 



Mr. and Mrs. Peckham have published in the ' Proceedings of 



