A REVISION OF THE GENUS LEPTOTHORAX. "93 



Yellow, slightly reddish ; whole of top of head, middle of femora, upper 

 surface of gaster excejpt the front of the first segment, brown ; club of antenna; 

 generally brown, sometimes only dark red. 



L. 2-6mm.-3-3mm Sub-sp. affiniis, Mayr. 



Two ^ s in the Hope- West wood collection at Oxford weve named 

 aifUiis by Forel. These ants were taken by Saunders in Hayling 

 Island, 1888, and labelled unifasciatus. Saunders^'' says he found 

 large colonies of " unifasciatus " at South Hayling under stones. 

 A(finis, however, in Switzerland is, so far as I know, only found in 

 hollow twigs and under bark, principally of walnut trees and oaks. 

 Donisthorpe found a colony in walnut tree twigs near Yvorne in 

 October, 1912, containing J s and one queen. Before definitely 

 establishing this sub-species as British, it will be necessary to see more 

 ^ s and also a J and ? . 



Thorax finely rugose. Spines narrow at base, variable in length, generally 

 half as long as basal face of epinotum. 



Yellow or reddish-yellow ; club of antenna; dark brown, almost black ; top of 

 head and vertex, and an irregular patch across the base and extending up each side 

 of the top of first segment of gaster, dark brown. 



L. 2-3mm.-2-7mm Sub-sp. tuberum (s.str.), Fabr. 



This is the ant almost universally labelled in British collections as 

 unifasciatus, Latr. It may readily be distinguished from the latter by 

 the absence of the clearly defined dark-brown band across the lower 

 half of the first segment of gaster and by the dark top of head and 

 antennal club, the latter in particular being much darker than in 

 unifasciatus. This sub-species is variable, passing into afjinis on the 

 one hand, and into interruptKs on the other (v. below). Forel" says 

 that those colonies that inhabit bark merge into affinis, and those that 

 live under stones, into interrnptHs. Some varieties with shorter 

 spines and paler antennae approach corticalis (v. above). The 

 following is its distribution (where not otherwise indicated, it has been 

 recorded as unifasciatus, Latr.) ; Colney Hatch Wood (Smith) ; 

 Lambeth (Wing) ; New Forest and Lulworth (Dale) ; Coombe Wood 

 (Smith) ; Dover (Curtis) ; Gravesend (Baly) ; Landslip, Isle of Wight 

 (Lewis) ; Torquay (Hamm coll.) ; Isle of Wight (Smith) ; Isle of 

 Wight, Seaton, Devon, and Portland (Dale) ; Hayling (Saunders) ; 

 Stoke Fleming (Perkins) ; Weymouth (Dale) ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight 

 (Saunders) ; Fairlight and Hastings (Vict. Hist. Sussex) ; Lyme 

 Regis (Nevinson) ; St. Margaret's Bay, Kent (Donisthorpe) ; Sherborne 

 (Bignall) ; Worcester (Fletcher) ; Black Pond, Oxshott (in coll. 

 Arnold) ; St. Margaret's I3ay, Kent (Donisthorpe, as tuberum, 1912). 



In St. Margaret's Bay, Donisthorpe and I have found nests in the 

 sand on the cliffs. 



Thorax finely rugose. Spines as in tuherum (s.str.). Eeddish-yellow ; club of 

 antennte, front of head, but not vertex, and an irregular patch on the base of first 

 segment of gaster, dark-brown. 



L. 2-5mm.-2-7mm Sub-sp. tuherum (a.str.), Fabr., var. passing 



to interruiitus, Sch. 



At Seaton, Devon, in June, 1912, I found in moss under flints on 

 the cliffs a small colony of this variety, consisting of 16 ^ s, one J , 

 several pup^e of all sexes, and larvfe. The ^ pup^e, some days before 



i« Hy. Acul. Brit. Isles, 1896. 

 " loc. cit., p. 85. 



