62 
Psyche 
[March 
from this interesting nest. Professor Shapley kindly gave 
the writer specimens of the different forms and in con- 
versation described the region in which the nest was found. 
The writer wishes to thank Professor Shapley for these 
abnormal specimens and for numerous facts concerning 
these ants in the locality of Pasadena, California. To Dr. 
Wheeler the writer wishes to express his thanks for his 
opinions concerning the specimens. 
According to Creighton (1928) abnormalities in ants ap- 
pear to fall into three fairly well defined categories : 
1. Sex mosaics and intersexes. 2 
2. Aberrant forms produced through altered food 
supply. 
3. Freaks and atavistic forms. 
The first group includes the various lateral mosaics as 
well as the rarer antero-posterior type. The second group 
includes a large number of peculiar forms which arise from 
pronounced nutritional irregularities. Lack of food may 
produce dwarf individuals, while loss of food due to the 
presence of parasites gives rise to pseudogynes. In the 
event of an overabundance of food, unusually large males 
and females, egg-laying workers and, more rarely, repletes 
may result. In the third group may be included those indi- 
viduals which show duplication, loss or malformation of 
parts and atavistic forms. 
The method by which aberrant forms, particularly 
pseudogynes, may be produced through altered food supply 
has been studied by Wasman for more than thirty years. 
He has suggested the following hypotheses. 
1. Ants of colonies, having their larval broods devoured 
by the Lomechusa larvae try to transmute into workers 
some larvae which have already developed somewhat along 
the path terminating in the queen phase. These efforts 
result in the production of forms that belong to neither 
caste. 
2 Intersexes should probably fall in the second category, as recent 
works indicate that they are produced through a change in the rate 
of metabolism. 
