wheeler: ants of the genus formica. 519 



and mesonotum infuscated. Tips of funiculi not infuscated. The 

 gaster is black, not paler ventrally. Small workers often have the 

 head and thorax dark brown. In some large specimens the head is 

 immaculate above. The hairs are sparse and scarcely more abundant 

 on the thorax than in the variety occidua. 



Female. Length: 7-8 mm. 



Smaller than the female of the typical nifiharhis. Surface subopaque 

 and gaster somewhat shining as in the worker. Pubescence longer 

 and denser, hairs more abundant. Head, thorax, and petiole brown; 

 mandibles, cheeks, clypeus, antennae, and legs yellow; mesonotum 

 with three large dark brown blotches, often more or less confluent. 

 Gaster blackish brown. Wings colorless, with dark brown veins and 

 stigma. 



Male. Length 7-8 mm. 



jNIandibles edentate or indistinctly tridentate. Thorax and gaster 

 stout. Petiole much as in the typical form but with the notch in its 

 superior border often obsolete or narrow. 



Surface of body, including the frontal area, opaque; head and thorax 

 coarsely, gaster more finely shagreened; the gaster slightly lustrous. 



Hairs extremely sparse, absent on the upper surface of the thorax 

 and gaster. Pubescence grayish, short but rather abundant. 



Head and thorax black; gaster dark brown; genital appendages 

 strongly infuscated. Legs yellow. Wings as in the female. 



Type locality. — Texas. 



Texas: Austin, Fort Davis, New Braunfels, Langtry (Wheeler); 

 Llano (A. W. Morrill); Kerrville, Devil's River (F. C. Pratt). 



New Mexico: Las Vegas (T. D. A. Cockerell); Las Valles (Miss 

 Mary Cooper); Mesa Negra, San Ildefonso (E. L. Hewett and Miss 

 Ruth Reynolds); Albuquerque (Wheeler); Alamogordo (G. v. 

 Krockow) . 



Arizona: Indian Garden, Grand Canyon, Phoenix, Prescott, Tempe, 

 Tucson, Benson Miller Canyon, Huachuca Mountains (Wheeler); 

 Ramsey Canyon, Huachuca Mountains (W. M. Mann). 



California: Needles (Wheeler). 



Colorado: Canyon City (P. J. Schmitt); Salida (Wheeler). 



Utah: Lehi (W. A. Hooker). 



This variety has been confounded with F. fusca var. ncorufiharhis 

 and var. gdida by Emery, Forel, and myself, owing to the somewhat 

 shining surface of the gaster, but a study of living colonies shows that 

 it belongs to rufiharhis, for the workers have the characteristic odor 

 of this species, are aggressive, and live in the ground under stones 

 or in nests without craters. They are found only in shady canyons 

 at rather low altitudes in the Southwest, never in the open desert 



