1982] Alio way, Buschinger, Talbot, Stuart & Thomas 
267 
number of possible “colony odors”. Ants from colonies with differ- 
ent odors fight, but ants from colonies with sufficiently similar 
odors do not fight and may merge (for a discussion, see Holldobler 
and Wilson, 1977). 
Finally, although some data indicate that polydomy occurs in L. 
ambiguus and L. longispinosus, other data indicate that monodomy 
also occurs. As already noted, many apparently polydomous colo- 
nies became monodomous in the laboratory. Similar fusions may 
occur in nature. In addition, several experiments suggested interac- 
tions either between a polydomous and a monodomous colony or 
between two or more monodomous colonies. There were several 
instances in which the ants from two or more nests merged and then 
attacked the ants from another single nest. These results suggest that 
the ants which merged had comprised a polydomous colony and 
that the ants which were attacked belonged to another colony. 
Finally, the results of L. ambiguus experiments 25 and 26 suggested 
interactions among three monodomous colonies; and those of 
experiments 27 and 28 suggested interactions between two monod- 
omous colonies. 
Discussion 
The evolutionary significance of polydomy and the question of 
what proportion of the queenless nests producing broods containing 
female pupae can be accounted for by polydomy will be discussed 
below. Here we simply note that some of the queenless nests of L. 
ambiguus and L. longispinosus which produce broods containing 
female pupae are almost surely parts of larger polydomous colonies 
in which there happened to be no queen at the time of collection. In 
the absence of data, it would be premature to conclude that polyd- 
omy occurs in L. curvispinosus. However, queenless nests are com- 
mon in L. curvispinosus; and this fact and the many other similarities 
between L. curvispinosus on the one hand and L. ambiguus and L. 
longispinosus on the other suggest that L. curvispinosus is also 
facultatively polydomous. 
Colony Foundation 
One sign of an incipient ant colony is a nest containing one or 
more queens, an immature brood, and no workers. Such apparently 
incipient colonies of L. ambiguus, L. curvispinosus, and L. longi- 
