wheeler: ants of the genus formica. 403 



According to Emery this, the typical form of the species, is distrib- 

 uted tliroughout the Palaearctic region, but in the southern portions 

 of Europe and Asia occurs only in hilly or mountainous country. 

 In Europe it ranges south as far as Sicily, in Asia as far as the Hima- 

 layas (Cashmir) and Lahoul, on the frontier of Thibet. 



The workers of sanguinea colonies make raids during the summer 

 months on colonies of F. fitsca and the other species cited above and 

 pillage their pupae. Many of these are devoured, but a number of 

 them are permitted to develop to maturity in the sanguinea nests 

 and thus become "slaves," or "auxiliaries." The colonies are there- 

 fore said to be of the "mixed" type. When old, however, these 

 colonies often lose the predatory habit and become slaveless. Meh- 

 meyer, Donisthorpe, and Wasmann have shown that the female 

 sanguinea establishes her colony by entering a fusca nest, appropriat- 

 ing some of the pupae and killing or driving away any of the fusca 

 workers that venture to attack her or seek to deprive her of her booty. 

 She guards the kidnapped young and eventually helps them to hatch, 

 thereby surrounding herself with a troop of nurses for her own brood 

 as soon as she begins to lay. This method of colony formation in 

 the typical sanguinea is the same as that first described by myself 

 for our American subspecies ruhicunda and subintegm (vide p. 408). 



The nests of sanguinea have the form of low, obscure mounds of 

 earth, or are excavated under stones or logs or around stumps or the 

 roots of plants, and their openings are often banked with a small 

 amount of vegetable detritus. This ant is restless and fond of 

 moving to new quarters from time to time. In some countries it 

 regularly occupies nests in sheltered situations such as woodlands 

 during the winter months but moves to nests in sunny, open places 

 during the summer. When moving to new nests the workers carry the 

 slaves in then- mandibles. The worker sanguinea is very courageous 

 and fiercely resents interference with its nests, using its mandibles and 

 injecting formic acid into the wounds made with these. 



2. F. SANGUINEA SANGUINEA var. MOLLESONAE Ruzsky. 



F. sangxdnea var. mollesonae Ruzsky, Rev. Russe entom., 1903, p. 206, S ; 

 Formicar. Imper. Ross. 1905, p. 420; Emery, Deutsch. ent. zeitschr., 

 1909, p. 184. 



Worker. Differs from the worker of the typical form in having 

 the epinotum much more rounded in profile. 



Transbaikalia, Siberia. 



