1985] 
Sorensen, Fletcher, & Vinson — Solenopsis 
65 
Discussion 
The transfer of food and surface materials to virgin queens in fire 
ant nests was very rapid. This indicated that rapid transmission of 
signals or pheromones throughout a colony via trophallaxis, physi- 
cal contact, and/or mutual grooming was possible. Proteinaceous 
foods reached the virgin queens within 15 min and up to 98% had 
received egg yolk after 2 h, well within the 12 h period after which 
pheromonally disinhibited virgin queens begin to dealate (Fletcher 
and Blum 1981b). This was expected. In polygynous colonies with 
400 workers, queens, brood, and no reproductives, egg yolk is dis- 
tributed to all of the workers and 80% of the larvae within 10 min 
(Sorensen et al. 1981) and, in colonies with 4,000 workers, to 95% of 
the workers and 85% of the larvae within 1 h (Sorensen and Vinson 
1981). Results from our third trial indicated that virgin females 
received significantly less food in colonies when the mated queen 
was no longer producing enough pheromone to prevent dealation. 
This suggests that decreased food transfer could have minimized the 
transfer of pheromone and led to dealation. However, this decrease 
in feeding could also have been caused by the disruption in normal 
food distribution as workers began to execute dealates. 
The high percentage (68-87%) of virgin queens receiving radioac- 
tivity from the surface of dead virgin queens, dead major workers, 
and glass rods showed that grooming activities and physical con- 
tacts between workers and virgin queens were extensive. Mirenda 
and Vinson (1981) found that active S. invicta workers spend 78% of 
their time grooming themselves, other ants, or being groomed. 
However, since fire ant workers respond to fresh corpses with 
vigorous and extended inspection (Blum 1970; Howard and Tschin- 
kel 1976) an initial burst of grooming and inspection by many 
workers followed by seizure and disposal of the corpses could have 
been responsible for spreading radioactivity rapidly through the 
colony. More virgin queens received radioactivity from the virgin 
queen corpses than from the major worker corpses, although the 
difference was not statistically significant. Virgin queen corpses may 
produce competing odors that mask necrophoric signals, delaying 
their removal and increasing worker-queen corpse contact. The 
extent of transfer of radioactivity from the virgin queen corpses may 
indicate that live virgin queens are also groomed and contacted 
frequently by workers. Workers exhibited aggressive behavior 
