228 
Psyche 
[Vol. 92 
Table 7. Hostility test results. Five ants in turn were taken from one nest to 
another and held by a mid-femur with forceps in the entrance of the “host” nest. An 
ant was considered “accepted” if at least three ants from the host nest contacted it 
without attacking it. The figures are the number of ants out of each set of five which 
were thus “accepted”. Slashes separate results from repeated tests. The tests were 
carried out first in September and then repeated, where possible, in November. 
Dashes indicate tests that could not be done because of a shortage of ants at the 
surface of the nest of origin. 
Host 
54 
55 
57 
Nest of Origin 
58 59 
60 
61 
63 
64 
54 
5 
5/1 
0/3/2 
0 
- 
1 
2 
1 
0 
55 
5 
5 
- 
4 
- 
4 
4 
5 
4 
57 
5/0 
- 
5 
- 
3 
5 
5/0 
- 
- 
58 
0 
1 
- 
5 
- 
1 
3 
1 
3 
September 
59 
- 
- 
- 
- 
5 
5 
- 
- 
5 
60 
5 
5 
4 
4 
5 
5 
4 
4 
4 
61 
0 
3 
1/0 
1 
- 
1/0 
5 
5/1 
4/2 
63 
2 
1 
- 
0 
1 
0 
3 
5 
0 
64 
0 
0 
- 
4/0 
0 
1 
1 
2 
5 
54 
5 
4 
5 
1 
- 
5 
4 
4 
4 
55 
0 
5 
2 
2 
- 
1 
3 
5 
3 
57 
3 
1 
5 
3 
- 
5 
5 
2 
5 
58 
0 
2 
4 
5 
- 
1 
0 
3 
3 
November 
60 
4 
2 
5 
1 
- 
5 
5 
3 
5 
61 
0 
0 
5 
- 
- 
5 
5 
- 
- 
63 
2 
1 
5 
2 
- 
5 
1 
5 
5 
64 
1 
0 
1 
1 
- 
1 
0 
0 
5 
Discussion 
Of the ants we excavated from the mature colony, 299 were old 
ants and 138 had emerged relatively recently. The number of true 
egg-layers was 22, yielding estimates of these being 7.4% of the 
mature ants, or 5.0% of the total worker force. Whelden (1957) 
dissected 274 ants of a relatively closely-related species, R. violacea, 
and found 22 of these to be inseminated. Unfortunately, Whelden 
does not record the numbers of mature versus callow ants, although 
he does mention the presence of some of the latter. His figure of 
8.0% of the workers being inseminated is therefore not directly 
comparable to our estimates, because his collection was made in 
May (a late autumn month in Australia) whereas ours was made in 
November, an early summer month. 
