1986] Buschinger et al. — Revision of Epimyrma 267 
nests over winter, and colony foundation through invading of a host 
colony occurs in spring. E.r. young queens, on the other hand, begin 
with colony foundation immediately after swarming, in late 
summer. 
In most of the populations of E.k., E.f and E.v., we found 
evidence of a reproductive biology identical to that of E.k. pop. no 
14 (Tignale), where we first have observed this kind of behavior 
(Winter & Buschinger 1983). 3 of the 1 1 colonies of E.v., which were 
collected on 31 March and 1st April, contained young Epimyrma- 
22 still engaged with throttling the host colony queens. The £./.- 
population, on the other hand, was studied in fall, October 3-10, 
and most of the colonies contained dealate young 22, a few alate 
ones, and some $$. Reproductive behavior, thus, is identical in 
E.k., E.v. and E.f, with intranidal mating and colony foundation in 
spring. So far as it could be checked, also the production of sexuals 
and the sex ratios are quite similar (table 5), the sex ratios indicating 
a generally high 2-bias. 
Epimyrma worker-numbers 
Slave-making ant species are characterized by the presence of a 
comparatively high number of 22 i n their nests, apart from 
incipient colonies. In the genus Epimyrma, we found a considerable 
variation of 2 numbers in different species, dependent upon their 
respective type of parasitism. Thus, E. ravouxi, an active slave- 
maker, has up to 77 £.-22 (mean 24.9) in a nest, whereas the 
“degenerate slavemaker”, E. kraussei, had an average of only 3.5 and 
a maximum of 10 £-22 (Buschinger & Winter 1983). £. Corsica 
(Emery 1895) has lost the 2 -caste completely (Buschinger & Winter 
1985). £ vandeli was originally said to be workerless, whereas 22 
had been described of £ kraussei and £. foreli. We therefore 
censused the £-22 m most of our field-collected colonies, and also 
the 2 -production of a representative number of colonies in 
laboratory culture. 
In table 6 we compare the Epimyrma 2 -numbers of 4 larger 
populations including 2 ascribed to £. kraussei (no 14 and 2a), and 
the populations no 5a (E.v.) and no 19 (E.f), and of 5 local 
populations of £. kraussei from the Spanish Pyrenees with nests 
always found in close vicinity. 
