1988] Lenoir, Querard, Pondicq, & Berton — Cataglyphis 33 
Table 4. Transfer experiments, % of workers entering the nest, n = number of 
ants tested, x 2 
= 92.868 (PC. 001), x 2 
for experimental group 
= 6.595 (NS). 
controls 
1 
2 
Nest Number 
3 
4 
5 
% workers 
entering 
the nest 
84 
7.5 
25 
27.5 
27.5 
25 
n 
50 
40 
40 
40 
40 
40 
behaved normally in their new colony where they seemed to be 
completely adopted. Some nests are very closed: only 7.5% of ants 
entered nest 1. Control ants, after marking, seemed to recognize 
their entrance and they were ignored by resident ants: in 50 tests 
they encountered only 9 resident ants (18%). On the contrary alien 
ants were more excited and they more frequently encountered the 
resident ants (35.5%). Encounters were followed by aggressive reac- 
tion in 2 cases for controls and in 34 out of 71 (47.9%) cases for 
aliens, which were sometimes dragged as prey (Table 5). 
These experiments show that most colonies are relatively open: 
they tolerate and adopt foragers of neighboring societies. We did 
not find a correlation between the % of adoption and distance 
between the nests, except for very close nests (1 m or less) which 
accept 90 or 100% of aliens. For greater distances (but still less than 
50 m) the % of adoption varies from 0 to 90% regardless of the 
distance. These results indicate that colonies in the same habitat 
behave more or less as kin. It is a supplementary argument in favor 
of the budding process for dissemination unless the results indicate 
nothing about the actual relationship between colonies. 
6. Role of parthenogenesis in colony foundation 
Cagniant (1973) observed in the laboratory that C. cursor 
workers can reproduce by thelytokous parthenogenesis. This phe- 
nomenon was later studied in detail by Suzzoni and Cagniant (1975) 
and Cagniant (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984). 
When orphaned in the laboratory after wintering, non-insemi- 
nated workers lay diploid eggs which produce workers and females. 
The sexuals leave the nest, females are inseminated by flying males 
and reenter the nest. In this way the colony can get a new queen. 
This sequence was easily verified in our laboratory. The existence of 
parthenogenesis in the field is, however very doubtful. Lenoir and 
