34 
Psyche 
[Vol. 95 
Table 5. Behavior of transferred ants and reaction toward resident ants. 
Control 
Alien 
Resident reaction 
Attacked 
1 
1 
Escape 
0 
15 
Dragged as prey 
1 
16 
Submission 
0 
2 
Number of encounters 
9 
71 
Aggressive 
2/9 
34/71 
encounters 
(22%) 
(47.9%) 
% of tested ants 
18% 
35.5% 
Number of ants tested 
50 
200 
Cagniant (1986) hypothesized that groups of workers which leave 
the nest at the end of the summer (as indicated in paragraph 5) could 
produce sexuals during the next springtime by parthenogenesis. If 
this occurred we should from time to time find groups of orphan 
workers, but that was never the case. Moreover it was observed that 
during budding, groups of workers transport a young queen, who is 
preventing parthenogenesis. Thus, if parthenogenesis occurs under 
natural conditions, it seems to be an accessory mechanism (for 
example in the case of queen death). These ants live frequently in 
sandy sites where nest collapse may occur. Thelytoky may also 
occur when the queen is senescent and becomes sterile. To verify 
this, we orphaned several colonies in late April or during the first 
days of May before the queens had laid eggs. 22 colonies were dug 
up and the queen removed together with a hundred workers which 
were reared in the laboratory. The rest of the colony was left on the 
site. Seven of these orphaned colonies were found in July exactly at 
the same place with an inseminated functional queen laying small 
eggs, which are characteristic of queen eggs (Cagniant 1982). Six of 
these colonies were easily distinguished from other normal neigh- 
boring colonies: they had a small number of workers (102.5, n = 4 vs 
577.5, n = 4) and very few cocoons (cocoons are numerous in nor- 
mal colonies). In these orphaned colonies, the ratio of cocoons: 
workers was less than 10%, versus 43% in normal colonies. Two 
colonies did not yet have cocoons. The seventh colony had a large 
number of cocoons and is probably another colony which had 
moved. The small size of orphaned colonies is the consequence of 
the perturbation induced by artificial orphaning. 
