Division of Labor in a Nest of the Slavemaking Ant Formica Wheeleri Creighton

It is a well known fact that most of the dul.otic Formica are not "host-specific." They normally employ several species as slaves and are apparently governed in their choice at least in part by the species that happen 2ortuitously to be accessible to the colony. F. subintegra Emery, or instance, most commonly enslaves F. fusca Linn., but I have seen it associated in cabinet series with F. lasioides Emery, F. neogagates Emery, and F. schau. fussi Mayr, while Creighto.n (1950) records it in addition with F. montana Emery and F. pallidefulva Mayr. Ac.cording o F.orel (1928, p. 12), the slave workers may retain some of the behavioral traits peculiar to their species. He notes that in Europe Formica pratensis Retzius workers reared from pupae by F. sanguinea Latreille tend to construct the form of nest characteristic of their own species. Talbot and Kennedy (1940) have made observations suggestive of the sa’me behavior in F. fusca enslaved by F. subintegra. When sanguinea workers kept in observation nests were induced by F.orel (op. cir., p. 126) to rear pupae of Polyergus rufescens (Latreille) and several common Formica so that all these species coexisted in the same nest, differences in behavior were noted" "the F. exsecta and fusca were distinguished by their activity in working, the Polyergus by their complete idleness, the sanguinea by their skill, and the pratensis by their clumsi-