FLIGHT ACTIVITIES OF THE ANT 
DOLICHODER US ( HYPOCLINEA ) MARIAE FOREL 1 
By Mary Talbot 
Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Missouri 
Often some reference is made to the “flight” of a species 
of ants as if all the males and females left the colony on 
one day. W. M. Wheeler, in his 1905 account of the genus 
Dolichoderus, 2 said of D. mariae: “August 20 is approxi- 
mately the date of the nuptial flight of this species.” 
Today it is generally understood that there are usually a 
number of flights. This study shows that D. mariae is 
conspicuous in this respect. 
In 1954 a long series of flights of a colony of D. mariae 
was observed at the Edwin S. George Reserve, Livingston 
County, Michigan. This colony was a large one, which 
nested in a blackberry patch ( Rubus allegheniensis Porter) 
on a slope facing northwest above Southwest Swamp. The 
nest had been made by digging out the sandy soil around 
a blackberry stalk to form a central cavity below ground. 
Where this was bridged across by roots and stems, great 
masses of ants rested and placed their brood. Above this 
they had built a beautifully constructed little igloo, which 
extended the central cavity aboveground. It was four 
inches high and seven inches across and was made of 
dried leaves, small twigs and grass blades, all lightly put 
together and held in place by the stems which passed 
through it. Two blackberry stalks and many grass stems 
(Poa compressa L.) extended above it. Entrances were 
scattered all over the mound but were inconspicuous be- 
1 The work was assisted by a grant from the Edwin S. George Reserve 
Scholarship Fund. Facilities of the Reserve were made available by 
Dr. T. H. Hubbell, Acting Director, and Dr. Irving J. Cantrall, Curator 
of the Reserve. 
2 Wheeler, W. M., 1905. The North American Ants of the Genus 
Dolichoderus. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 21 : 305-319. 
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