
Ps 'che [Vo. 85 thorax n'landeri (F6rster). All our material also was collected in Istria, and in the Dalmatian island Krk 3. Since the descriptions of all the three forms mentioned above are nearly identical, we assume that M'rmetaerus microcellatus and M'rmoxenus gordiagini menozzii are junior synonyms of M'rmoxenus gordiagini. We have been unable, however, to check the type material.

Nothing has been known of the biology of M'rmoxenus/M'rmetaerus except the fact that they were always found living together with a host species belonging to the genus Leptothorax Mayr, subgenus M)'rq ['ant Smith (1950) (1973, 1974, 1982) and Winter (1979a) . For initiating slave raids, we used arenas as depicted by Winter (1979a) and Buschinger et al. (1980) . During the raids the room temperature was about 27C. Contrary to our experiences with Harpagoxenus or Epim.vrma, which need bright sunshine or at least blue sky for raiding, the Mvrmoxenus seem to prefer a clouded sky. Thus, the first raid which we observed in our labroatory took place on a cloudy day; for the second one, on a sunny day, we closed the window shades.
COLONY FOUNDING BY MYRMOXENUS GORDIAGIN1
As indicated above, we rely on the quite brief notes of W. Faber, who observed colony founding by M. gordiagini females in 1972. According to these notes, the young Myrmoxenus queen enters a host species colony (L. lichtensteini), apparently soon after mating and dealation, in late summer. Most Myrmoxenus females were attacked and often killed by workers of the host species. In a few experiments, however, a parasitic queen survived the attacks and at last was accepted by the host species workers. She then assaulted the host species queen in a very characteristic manner (Fig. 1) At 1808, a file of about 20 M'rmoxenus came out of the nest (Fig. 2) and walked across the arena towards the hole. Sometimes the procession stopped, milling around, apparently until the leading scout had found its way again.
COLONY FOUNDING BY MYRMOXENUS GORDIAGIN1
At 1905 the group had reached the entrance of the target nest, and entered it one after the other. Almost no fighting could be observed. After 6 minutes, the lichtensteini queen and most of the workers had left their nest, carrying a few small larvae and eggs.
COLONY FOUNDING BY MYRMOXENUS GORDIAGIN1
Only two Leptothorax were stung. Some M.vrmoxenus workers The arena was then subdivided again, and a new Leptothorax nest was placed in the position of the former M.vrmoxenus nest.
COLONY FOUNDING BY MYRMOXENUS GORDIAGIN1
The second raid, in the same arena, was observed two weeks later, on 10 July. Scouting began at 0830 and a successful scout returned to the M),rmoxenus jonathanhoward@example.net. However, in this case, a file did not form before 0933. At 1009 a total of 14 M.vrmoxenus arrived at the target nest, entered it at 1012, and a few minutes later they had overwhelmed the colony and were in possession of its brood. Eight Leptothorax were immediately stung to death. Contrary to the first raid, this time the Myrmoxenus soon began to carry pupae and large larvae back into their own nest. One returning Myrmoxenus, at 1150, led a further file of 15 conspecifics to the raided nest. At 1320 the Leptothorax nest was empty except for a few eggs and one Leptothorax male. A total of 26 dead Leptothorax workers were counted in the arena, indicating that during this raid more fighting had occurred than during the first one.
DISCUSSION
Our results, despite the low number of raids observed, reveal that M)'rmoxenus gordiagini is a slave-making ant. The organization of the raids is essentially the same as in Epimyrma ravouxi (Andr6) (Winter 1979b , Buschinger et al. 1980 , and in the North American Leptothorax duloticus (Wesson 1940) , with group recruitment and sting fighting.
DISCUSSION
The colony foundation behavior of M.vrmoxenus also corresponds to that observed in several species of the genus Epimyrma (Kutter 1951, Gtisswald, 1930, Buschinger and Winter, in 

{'paper_id': '85125658', 'title': 'The Biology of Myrmoxenus Gordiagini Ruzsky a Slave-Making Ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)', 's2_url': 'https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:85125658', 'source': 'S2ORC'}