139 
1963] Creighton — Cryptocerus texanus 
of an unwelcome intruder and later developments appear to confirm 
this veiw. 
It was soon found that the ants would gorge themselves with honey 
until the posterior segments of the gaster were visibly distended to the 
rear. This response seems to have been due to a need for fluids and 
not to a fondness for honey. The presence of honey in the feeding 
chambers favored the growth of mould. To reduce mould growth to 
a minimum the nests were kept dry enough to prevent condensation 
and it is likely that the only fluids that the ants secured were those 
furnished by the food in the nests. Thus it seems correct to state 
that the conditions in the Janet nests were such that the ants were 
subjected to a sort of forcible feeding. The females also gorged them- 
selves with honey and soon began to lay eggs. These were eaten by 
the workers almost as fast as the queens laid them. This obvious 
protein lack was corrected by giving the ants mantis eggs which had 
been sliced open. The ants would gorge themselves on the liquid 
contents of the mantis eggs and thereafter stopped eating their own 
eggs. As a result brood was produced, some of which was carried 
through to the pupal stage. It should be noted that both the egg-laying 
of the texanus queen and the development of her brood is slow, if one 
may judge from what happened in the artificial nests. The eggs were 
not laid at regular intervals but in bursts, during which three or four 
eggs were laid with comparative rapidity. Over an extended period 
the rate of egg-laying averaged out to one egg every forty-eight hours. 
At a temperature around 70°F. most of the eggs developed into larvae 
in 25 days. The larval period was about 55 days. Observations had 
to be discontinued before any of the pupae transformed to adults but, 
if the pupal period is as long as the larval period, the development of 
a texanus worker from egg to adult should have taken not less than 
four and a half months in the artificial nests. If this slow rate of 
brood development is true of free colonies of texanus , it is easy to 
appreciate why this species is pleometrotic. Unless several queens were 
present in each colony the production of adults could scarcely keep 
pace with the inevitable attrition of the foraging workers. 
After the ants were installed in the aquaria nests they would not 
eat anything, not even the food on which they had gorged themselves 
while in the Janet nests. As already noted the texanus crawled over 
the oak leaves by the hour and occasionally drank from droplets of 
water that condensed on the walls of the aquaria. But for a period 
of several weeks they were not seen to swallow anything else. If the 
