50 THE ARGENTINE ANT. 
The credit for first discovering and recognizing the queens of this 
species seems to belong to Mr. E. Baker, formerly superintendent of 
Audubon Park, New Orleans, and Prof. E. E. Blouin, formerly in 
charge of the Audubon Park Experiment Station. 
The rate at which the queen deposits eggs varies with the prevail- 
ing temperature, and egg deposition is suspended entirely at low tem- 
peratures. In the artificial formicaries, already described, the num- 
ber of eggs laid each day varied from 1 or 2 to as many as 50 or 60. 
Thirty per day is not far from the normal number in warm weather, 
when the food supply is abundant. It appears probable, however, 
that the queens deposit much more rapidly in large colonies, although 
from the nature of the case this can not be verified by direct observa- 
tion. Egg deposition becomes very slow, or ceases entirely, in the 
artificial formicaries when the daily mean temperature falls below 
68° F. 
Practically all queens under observation have shown a disposition 
to suspend egg deposition entirely for longer or shorter periods, even 
when the occurrence of such periods can not be accounted for by low 
temperatures. 
Fertile queens confined in test tubes without accompanying 
workers will often deposit a few eggs upon the walls of the tubes, but 
we have been totally unable to get colonies established by confining 
queens in artificial formicaries without workers accompanying them. 
This failure has not been due to any need of workers to feed or care 
for the queen, since she can feed herself from a supply of honey or 
sugar as readily as can a worker. Ordinarily she attends to her own 
toilet, and it is doubtful whether she is in reality "attended" by the 
workers in the sense that queen bees are attended. 
Fertile queens do not confine themselves to the formicaries, either 
natural or artificial. Isolated dealated queens are not infrequently 
found wandering about buildings by themselves, and while the queens 
in artificial formicaries ordinarily stay within the nest proper, they 
have at times been seen outside of it. The finding of dealated queens 
wandering about, coupled with the fact that workers readily accept a 
queen from any source, seems to indicate that new colonies may 
sometimes be established in nature by workers associating with such 
wandering queens. 
The length of life of the queen has never been determined, but 
there is no doubt that it extends over several years. Observations 
have been carried on with the same queen for considerably over a year. 
The number of queens that may be found in a colony varies from 
one to several in the summer nests, and may reach into the hundreds 
in the large winter colonies. Queens never show the least hostility 
to each other or to the workers. 
