1986] 
Ward — Rhytidoponera me tallica 
11 
incipient, queenright colony of R. chalybaea (a species in which 
functional queens are common), but a clear division of labor devel- 
oped between the egg-laying queen and foraging workers. 
One R. metallica colony suffered death of the queen in its second 
year of development. This was followed by a spate of intersibling 
rivalry and frequent sexual calling behavior on the part of the 
workers. The other colony continued to function as a viable queen- 
right colony, and showed no signs of intracolony strife or reproduc- 
tive attempts by workers. 
These observations show that R. metallica queens have retained 
their colony-founding and reproductive potential, despite their spo- 
radic occurrence in nature. This suggests that long-range dispersal 
via winged queens remains an occasional viable option for worker- 
reproductive colonies of R. metallica. 
Acknowledgements 
The University of California provided financial support for this 
work. I thank Ross Crozier, Caryl Haskins and Christian Peeters 
for comments on the manuscript. 
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