234 
Psyche 
[Vol. 91 
queen and is subsequently adopted as the “replacement” queen by 
the slave ant workers. This mode of parasitic colony founding was 
later confirmed in field observations by Gosswald (1932). 
It is possible that the Polvergus queen achieves her acceptance in 
the foreign colony by emitting either a supernormal attractant or a 
disorganizing alarm substance (hence, some form of queen “propa- 
ganda” substance), possibly discharged from the pygidial gland. In 
fact, the pygidial gland secretions of Polyergus workers might also 
function as a kind of propaganda allomone when encountered by 
slave ants, very similar to the Dufour’s gland secretions of the slave 
raiding species Formica pergandei and Formica subintegra which 
have a confusing propaganda effect on the raided slave ant colony 
(Regnier and Wilson 1971). 
Further experimental work is required to determine which, if apy, 
of these proposed speculations on the function of the Polyergus 
pygidial gland is correct. 
Acknowledgements 
I thank Hiltrud Engel-Siegel and Ed Seling for technical assist- 
ance, and Howard Topoff and Linda Goodloe who generously pro- 
vided specimens of Polyergus breviceps and P. lucidus. This work 
was supported by NSF grant NBS 82 19060. 
References 
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