MYRMECOPHILOUS NOTES FOR 1911. 9 



heather, etc. It was superficially very like a nest of F. e.vsecta. The 

 ^ s running about on the mound, like F. exsecta does, were all small in 

 size and very red, and might have easily been taken for F. exsecta. 

 There vv^ere no tracks to and from the nest like F. rufa makes. On 

 examiring the ^ s I at once found that they were not ^. exsecta. 

 The nest was dug up and four dealated $ s were found. I concluded 

 they were a form new to us, and when I had got them home I found 

 the legs were more hairy and the scales had golden hairs, especially in 

 the $ s, in which characters they differ from F. rufa. I sent specimens 

 to Forel and he says they are the var. alpina, Santschi in litt. He 

 writes : — Your ants belong to a group of varieties which I once called 

 truncicolo-pratensis. They are nearly the colour of the var. dusmeti, 

 Emery, from Norway and Spain. Eecently Santschi has discovered and 

 distinguished it in our Alps under the name of F. rufa var. alpina in 

 litt. I myself have received it from Norway and the Black Forest, 

 etc., and have also found it in Switzerland. It is distinguished above 

 all by the more narrow head, as Santschi has shown. It has some 

 exserted hairs on the outer side of the tibiae (hairs which fail in true 

 F. rufa) and some spare hairs on the eyes. This variety is of course 

 an addition to the British List ; it is intermediate between the subspecies 

 pratensis and truncicola. The latter we do not possess as British, but it 

 is possible we may yet find it in the Highlands. 



Formica rufa, L., subsp. pratensis, De G. — My chief reason for 

 visiting Rannoch was to try and find this subspecies. On June lOtb 

 I found a small hillock of pine needles, etc., among the fir trees near 

 the Loch inhabited by it. A number of ^ s were secured, and the 

 nest was dug up, but no ? s were found. On June I2t;h another nest 

 was found close to the old one. It consisted of a large hillock of pine 

 needles, etc., built over a pine stump. I dug it up, but with the help 

 of a spade and an axe I could not get at the bottom, and no $ s were 

 found. Larvffi and cocoons were present. White^' writes : " This is 

 the common wood ant at Bournemouth," and adds Loch Rannoch, 

 Holnest, Porlock, and Exmouth (Dale). It is certainly not the common 

 wood ant at Bournemouth now, and I am inclined to doubt the last 

 three localities, Saunders^'' says : " The race pratensis is rare in 

 this country, but has been recorded from Bournemouth and Rannoch." 

 i find I took a winged ? at Corbridge, in Northumberland, on June 

 3rd, 1906. The abdomen is dull and pubescent, and the scale has 

 hairs, whereas in F. rufa the abdomen is smooth and very shining, 

 and there are no hairs on the scale. 



Formica sanguinea, Latr. — Dr. Sharp" recorded the capture of 

 Microdon egfieri,'MW.,d,i Rannoch. Its known hosi i?, F. sawiuinea, 

 and r^ pointed out that it probably occurred at Rannoch, as I had 

 discovered it at Aviemore and Nethy Bridge. I was consequently on 

 the look-out all the time for nests of F. sanguinea, and on June 11th 

 I found a very large colony under stones near a wall on the moor. 

 Many F. fusca slaves were present. I took home some F. sanguinea 

 ^ s in laurel to give away. Among them I found large ^ s of the var. 

 alpina of F. rufa. As the F. sanguinea colony was quite near to where 



15 Ants and Their Ways, 1895, p. 232. 



16 Hym. Acal., 1896, p. 2. 



" Ent. M. Mag., 1910, p. 274. 

 18 Ent. M. 2Iag., 1911, p. 43. 



