142 
Psyche 
[December 
fitting, golden rings. In this species brood is usually present 
during the entire year. In some nests this is also true of 
the sexual forms. Fully mature males and winged females 
have been taken from nests as early as March 20th and as 
late as November 3rd. In southern Arizona and northern 
Chihuahua most nests are free from sexual forms by the 
first of October. It seems clear, however, that the sexual 
forms occasionally remain in the nest over the winter. 
Four colonies containing mature males and females were 
taken in the Ajo Mountains of Arizona on March 20th 
and 21st, 1952. Four days before snow had fallen in this 
area and the winter had been an unusually cool one. If the 
males and females in the above nests came from early 
spring brood it was certainly a remarkable performance. 
It is more reasonable to suppose that they had overwintered 
in the nest. It appears that there is no mass egress of 
males and females in the marriage flight of this species. 
The writer had it under daily observation during Septem- 
ber in 1951. Although there were many males and females 
in the nests during that period no marriage flight was seen. 
But during the month of September a number of dealated, 
nest-founding females were taken. Since these had not 
been encountered earlier, the presumption is that some 
sort of marriage flight was taking place during September. 
If this had been of the usual type it is hard to see how it 
could have been overlooked. It seems probable that the 
marriage flight of apache extends over much of the month 
of September, with the males and virgin females leaving 
the nest in comparatively small numbers at intervals during 
that period. 
