1980] Buschinger, Francoeur, & Fischer —Leptothorax 
7 
No. 15: Six individuals could be dissected; one intermorph and four 
ergatomorphs had empty receptacula, one worker had no spermathe- 
ca. 
The remaining specimens from these 5 colonies could not be 
dissected because they were too much decomposed when found dead. 
The same happened with all individuals from colonies no. 7,8 and 10. 
However, among the 5 colonies we had again 3 with one functional 
queen (no. 4, 5, 14), and there were inseminated but sterile specimens 
in these colonies, always together with a functional queen. Thus we 
believe that the social organization of Leptothorax provancheri, like 
that of Formicoxenus nitidulus (Buschinger and Winter, 1976), and 
F. hirticornis (Buschinger 1979), is a “functional monogyny”, with 
always one fully fertile queen in a colony unit, and with often several 
inseminated but sterile “replacement queens”. Such queens could 
possibly found own colonies by budding, together with a few workers 
from the mother colony. However, founding of colonies by single 
newly inseminated females alone may also occur (cf. no. 1). It is 
interesting that a few intermorphs and ergatomorphs, without being 
Fig. 1: Sexual calling behavior of a Leptothorax provancheri female (ocellate 
intermorph). The stinger is extruded. 
