4 
Psyche 
[Vol. 87 
morphological sense, and individuals between these (“intercasts”) are 
indicated by the terms “gynomorph”, “ergatomorph” and “inter- 
morph” (Buschinger and Winter, 1976, Buschinger 1978). The 
remaining colonies were kept and observed in the laboratory. From 
October 1979 to February 1980 they hibernated under natural 
temperature conditions at Darmstadt/FRG. After a severe frost 
period with temperatures reaching —12°C many adults were dead, 
but could still be dissected. The larvae survived, and a small number 
of sexuals and workers hatched until the end of March. 
Sexual behavior was observed immediately after collecting the ants 
in the field, and during the first half of September, in the laboratory. 
Karyotype studies were made following the method of Imai, 
Crozier and Taylor (1977), with male pupae collected in the field. 
3) Female Polymorphism and Functional Monogyny 
The ant material was collected when sexual pupae and some newly 
eclosed sexuals were present in the nests. In Table I we did not 
distinguish between ergatogynes, uni-, bi- and triocellate workers, as 
was done by Holliday (1903); however, all these different forms did 
occur, alongside with alate or dealate gynomorphs and ergatomorphs 
without ocelli, like in the population studied by Holliday. We 
comprised all intermediate forms between alate/dealate females and 
apparently normal workers without ocelli as “intermorphs”. 
Table I reveals, at the first glance, that alate and dealate 
gynomorphs, and their pupae, are extraordinarily rare among the 
collected ants. Altogether we found 5 such specimens in 15 colony 
units, as compared to 240 intermorphs and 541 ergatomorphs. The 
respective numbers from Holliday (1903) are the following: queens 
(including microgynes): 36, intermorphs: 411, workers (including 
macroergates): 624 (These numbers, however, refer only to adults). 
The different numerical relations between adult intermorphs and 
ergatomorphs (109:375) and the immatures (131:166) in our material 
could indicate that workers preferably remain with their colony unit, 
whereas a considerable part of the intermorphs might leave the nest, 
mate and start new colonies. Further evidence for this interpretation 
is strongly provided by the dissections. Since it is difficult to include 
all the various combinations of different female forms and their 
reproductive function in a table, we will give the results of our 
dissections hereafter for each colony unit separately. Numbers 
correspond to those in table I. 
