altitude coniferous forest or coniferous and broadleaved mixed forest in Chin

a. There are four castes in adults including major workers, minor workers, queens

 and males. It was observed that eggs, larvae, pupae and each caste of adults we

re coincidence in a mature colony in summer, with two to four queens in each nes

t. Therefore, it has a polygynous colony structure. So far, it is found that onl

y workers and queens overwinter. In this paper, morphology characters of each st

age and each caste of this species were described, provided with their morpholog

ical parameters. It also recorded the behaviors of foraging, nesting, nest clean

ing, defending and attacking of the workers. Moreover, it was firstly reported t

hat males have an obvious behavior of protecting queens and larvae. In addition,

 it is found that the pheromone trail was not so important in activity of the wo

rkers.