I I 2 
PSYCHE 
[December 
from the typical form in being of smaller size and much darker color and in 
having the antennal scape somewhat straighter at the base. 
8. Mxnnica rubra scabrinodis Nylander var. A single dealated female 
belonging to a form of this subspecies with a small calyculate dilatation at the 
base of the antennal scape, long straight epinotal spines and strong sculpturing 
on the head, thorax and pedicel. 
\J 9. Mvnnica rubra scabrinodis Nylander var. schencki Emery. A single 
winged female taken by Dr. C. S. Bacon during .August 1901 on the summit. 
This insect is darker in color than females from Colebrook, Conn., in my col- 
lection. 
This little collection of ants is remarkable because it comprises males and 
females but no workers. This fact taken in connection with Mrs. Slosson’s 
statement to me that she was quite unable to find any colonies of ants on the 
summit, but at most chance aggregates of two or three females, indicates that 
this portion of the mountain, which is above timber-line, must be peopled anew 
every year by female ants that never succeed in establishing colonies. These 
females ( and the shorter-lived males, when these are found, as in the case of 
Lasius nixtus above recorded ) undoubtedly drift to the summit while on their 
nuptial flight. This is shown by the relatively large number of winged females in 
the above list. 'Fhey are in all probability individuals that have ascended to an 
unusual altitude and have been swept onto the mountain summit by an upper air 
current. This seems to be the only way of accounting for the peculiar occurrence 
of forms like Dolichoderus gagates in such a locality. This ant is not known to 
breed further north than the low pine-barrens of New Jersey, where it nests in 
the warm, white sand about clumps of grass and attends plant-lice on the pines 
and scrub oaks.* The occurrence of this insect on a mountain summit 6293 ft. 
high and some hundreds of miles further north must be regarded as accidental, 
(hily in case the Dolichoderus females succeeded in establishing their colonies on 
the summit of Mt. Washington would this condition be truly analogous to that 
of certain plants like the eastern prickly pear ( Opuntia opuniia) which grows in 
low sandy spots in Florida and on the rocky ledges of certain hilltops in New 
lersey. New York and Massachusetts. -A strictly parallel instance, however, 
seems to be presented by Tapinoma pruinosum Roger, an ant which I have taken 
in the sandy pine-barrens of New Jersey and on the summits of some of the 
Ramapo Mountains in southern New AMrk, but not in intermediate stations. 
*Conf. my pajjer: The North .American ants of the Genus Dolichoderus, Dull. .Am. Mus. 
Nat. Hist. Vol. XXI, 1905. pp. 305 — 319. 
