498 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Apparently indistinguishable from the male of the typical form. 

 Perhaps the pubescence on the gaster is a little longer and denser and 

 this region therefore a little less shining. Wings as in the female. 



Like fusca this variety is widely distributed through Eurasia. It 

 has been introduced into gardens in Algiers. Emery states that 

 it does not occur in the smaller southern islands in the Mediterranean 

 and that it is absent from Crete. Krausse has recently taken it, 

 however, in Sardinia. Unlike the true fusca, it prefers the lowlands 

 and especially gardens and meadows, where it builds small mound- 

 nests. If the ground is very dry the nests may be entirely subterra- 

 nean like those of F. rufibarbis. 



Emery has recently come to regard glcbaria as a good subspecies, 

 instead of as a mere variety of fusca, because he finds that the 

 workers of the typical form of this species will not rear the pupae of 

 glcbaria. It is not at all clear that such behavior necessarily constitutes 

 a criterion of the taxonomic status of a subspecies, since it will not 

 hold even for species. Moreover, if glcbaria is raised to subspecific 

 rank it will be necessary to do the same with many of our American 

 forms of fusca, such as subsericea, ncoclara, gclida, etc., and I am not 

 prepared to regard these as more than varieties. 



82. F. FUSCA FUSCA var. rubescens Forel. 



F. fusca var. rubescens Forel, Bull. Soc. ent. Belg., 1904, 48, p. 423, ^ ; Emery, 

 Deutsch. ent. zeitschr., 1909, p. 196, ^ 9. 



Worker. Length 4-6.5 mm. 



Sculpture and pubescence as in glcbaria. In the large worker the 

 anterior portion of the head, the thorax, scapes, first funicular joint, 

 and the legs are yellowish red, with the exception of two almost con- 

 fluent fuscous spots resembling those of F. pratensis, on the pro- 

 and mesonotum. The small workers are scarcely distinguishable 

 from those of var. glcbaria, the red color being very feebly developed 

 or absent. 



Female. Length 7-9 mm. 



Lower portions of thorax and the petiole more or less red, the color 

 of the remainder of the body as in glcbaria, the gaster subopaque and 

 covered with short, silky pubescence. Wings distinctly infuscated 

 at their bases. 



Male. Length 8-9 mm. 



Indistinguishable by any reliable characters from the males oi fusca 

 and its var. glcbaria. 



