igo6] 
WHEELER— XEW AXES FROM XEW EXCI.AXD 
the typical flams of Europe “by its much smaller eyes, paler color, smaller 
and less variable stature, the absence of large reddish brown individuals, and 
finally by its predilection of warm, arid regions, where it lives under stones, un- 
like the true flavus, which prefers fat, humid meadows and makes large, 
compact mound nests.” The worker of our American form of flavus un- 
doubtedly resembles luyops more closely than it does the typical flas'us in the 
small eyes and paler color, but it is somewhat larger than inyops (2..V2.6 mm.'), 
has the head and thorax smoother and more shining and the eyes proportionally 
even smaller. It differs, moreover, from my ops in its habits, as it is found 
only in damp soil in shady woods, where it nests under dead leaves, stones or 
logs in colonies which are very small compared with those of the European 
flavus. These ethological differences arc. in my estimation, a clearer indication 
of the independent subspecific rank of the .\merican form th.in the mor[)lio- 
logical characters, although the discovery of the females anil males of jjiyops 
and their comparison with the corrcs]ionding phases of nearefiats may facilitate 
the separation of the two forms in our collections. 
3. Formica morsci sp. nov. 
^ Worker. (Plate 1 \ . Pig. i a-c). Length 3.3-55 mni. 
With the habitus of a small F. rufa. Mandibles 8-toothed. Palpi rather 
long. Head, excluding the mandibles, distinctly longer than broad; cheeks 
long, slightly tlattened. converging in front, poTiterior border and angles con- 
vex and rounded. Clypeus convex, carinate, with entire, rotmded anterior 
border. Antenna; slender; four btisal joints of fnnicidus longer and lu.orc 
slender than the terminal joints. Thorax in profile with deej) mesonotal con- 
striction. the pro-and mesonotum together and the e])inotum singly, rounded 
and conve.x. Petiole much narrower than the e|)inottmi. both its anterior and 
posterior surfaces alike conve.x in ])rofile ; seen from behind the border is 
broadly rounded, in some specimens faintly emarginate in the middle, but not 
produced upward at this point as in many forms of the rufa group. The edge 
is rather bhint. Gaster large. Legs of the usual conformation. 
Mandibles shining, sharply striatopunctatc. .Vntcrior ])ortion of head, 
clypetis, frontal area, lower surface of thetrax and gaster, shining; remainder 
of body subop:i(|ue, very finely .shagreened ; upper surf.ace of gaster with a 
slightly oily luster. 
Hairs white, obttise. suberect and very sparse on the u|>per surface ol the 
