136 
Psyche 
[December 
8:30 a.m. (60°) the mound was covered with ants, and a 
steady procession of males and females was climbing above 
the nest. Again, workers seemed to push some from behind. 
The first male flew at 8:34 a.m. (61°) and was followed 
by a continuous stream of others. Females kept fluttering 
their wings but did not begin to fly until 8:55 a.m. (65°). 
In the meantime, tops of berry leaves and blades of grass 
became greatly crowded with the winged ants, males 
predominating over females. As both continued to fly, 
there came to be more females then males on the berry 
bushes, for males stopped coming from the nest before 
females did. By 9:30 a.m. (66°) the last male had flown 
and there were no more winged ants on the mound, but 
females continued to fly from plants until 9:50 a.m. (69°). 
Toward the end of the flight, workers became active again, 
but this time they tapped winged ants in such a way that 
the latter moved downward. 
From this day, ants continued to fly each morning 
unless the weather prevented. Eighteen flights were 
watched in the 27 days between August 12 and September 
7. Bad weather prevented flights on four days, and on 
five days no observations were made. Perhaps flights 
began before August 12, and they certainly continued 
after September 7, when observations ceased, because 
there were still males and females in the colony. 
During this time an amazing number of ants flew. It 
was hard to count flying ants, but estimates were made 
for numbers leaving the nest per minute at various times 
during flying. At least 15,000 flew from the colony. 
Largest flights occurred on August 20 and 22 and Septem- 
ber 1 and 5, when an estimated 1550, 4370, 1750, and 1500 
flew. Smallest flights were on August 12 (4), August 17 
(33) and August 26 (57). On the latter two days the 
weather was unfavorable. The flight on September 6 
(the last complete one observed) released over 900 ants — 
evidence that numbers had not been greatly depleted at 
that time. 
It soon became apparent that the wide fluctuation of 
time of day of the flights was determined by temperature 
