1971] 
Talbot — Formica dakotensis 
177 
2 to 3 m.p.h. At 9:25 a.m. (84°, 3600 ft. c.) no alates were in 
sight but workers were guarding exits. Two minutes later a male 
which had reached the outside was pulled back by an antenna and 
in another two minutes a male succeeded in climbing a berry stem. 
Immediately others climbed and at 9:34 (85°, 3600 ft. c.), one 
flew and a female was seen back in the spirea. Rate of flying of 
males increased rapidly, with about 4 a minute flying during the 
first 14 minutes, then 8 a minute for the next 9 and, during the 
heighth of flight (9:58 to 10:08) 169 males flew at the rate of 17 
a minute. During the most favorable period the temperature was 
86° and light 3700 ft. c. One male took off in a gust of 3 m.p.h., 
but Avind continued to bother most and flying off declined rapidly 
until it ended about 10:50. Males had begun the swarming flying 
over plants by 10:10 and their number gradually increased. When 
wind blew they settled on plants and resumed flying during lulls. 
During the early part of the flight a female could be seen occa- 
sionally on the ground or a plant stem and by 10:05 one had flown 
away. Seven were seen to fly between then and 1 1 :oo and 10 females 
were seen to mate. As before, as many as four males might con- 
verge on a female and one or two males would hang on the mating 
male. 
In all seven flights 1055 males were counted flying away and 
20 or more females were seen. This was a definite undercount 
because, during abundant flights, the alates spread out so far that 
not all could be seen. Since there were still winged ants in the nest 
on October 1, no approximation could be made of the number of 
alates produced by the colony. 
The watch continued each day until October 1 but bad weather 
prevailed and no further flights occurred during this period. In all 
there were 20 days between September 5 and October 1 when no 
flights took place. Records kept on these days told much about 
unfavorable conditions. On 9 days temperature never reached above 
69° and no alates came out. On 8 days temperature reached into 
the 7o’s or low 8o’s but these higher temperatures were brief and 
other conditions were unfavorable. Clouds or wind might give 
rapid alternating of temperature, the ground in shade might stay 
very cool or there was rain during flight time. Three days were 
very warm, with highs up to 98°. On the first a few males came 
out but kept dropping. There was also a wind up to 8 m.p.h. On 
the second day there was no wind but clouds gave a very rapid 
alternating of light intensities. The third day seemed favorable 
except that the shade remained cool. At 12:55 p.m. when it was 
