1988] Lenoir , Querard, Pondicq, & Bert on — Cataglyphis 29 
colonies of C. cursor the female is only 1.8 to 3 times the weight of 
workers. We never found colonies with nanitic workers. We 
weighed the workers in a small colony composed of 31 workers: they 
were on average heavier than the overall mean. Perhaps the largest 
workers, more resistant, are more likely to survive in small colonies 
issued from budding. This needs to be confirmed with additional 
small colonies. 
The situation is not so simple as in Iridomyrmex humilis, a spe- 
cies forming a unique giant polydomous nest in the south of France, 
where young societies do not exist. The ratio Q/W is 8.28 (Passera 
and Keller, in prep.). We conclude that a ratio of 30-40 is proof of 
an independent foundation but a ratio of 7-10 is inconclusive. 
5. Internest Relations 
We observed workers leaving a nest and then entering into a 
neighboring nest. The workers of these nests were marked with one 
color for each nest, so that traffic at the entrance could be measured. 
The data presented here were collected on the plateau of Claparede 
near Apt (Vaucluse) during July 1983 between 2 nests one meter 
apart (nest 1 and nest 0). Direct journeys between the two nests were 
recorded. In most of the passages the workers were not loaded, 
although they sometimes transported cocoons, a worker or prey. 
The transporting workers of colony 1 reinforce their society as their 
traffic is important in direction of colony 0 (Table 2). 
The data in Table 2 are indicative because only 50% of the 
observed ants were marked. This means that the real flux of 
exchanges was probably double. Table 2 shows that colony 1 is 
more active at the entrance of colony 0. The activity also varies 
greatly according to days. 
These two colonies were excavated at the end of August: in 
colony 1 we found 750 workers and 1500 in colony 0. In this case it 
seems that traffic is inversely proportional with the size of the 
colony. From the 1st to the 5th of August a second set of observa- 
tions permitted us to quantify the proportion of ants of one nest 
found at the entrance of another nest. Each alien ant observed at 
one entrance was marked with a second spot of paint indicating the 
number of this entrance. In this experimental design each worker is 
counted only once. 2 new nests appeared during this period: nest 10 
at 40 cm from nest 0 and nest 1 1 at 1.6 m from nest 1. 
