90 Psyche [June 



NEW NAMES FOR SOME ANTS OF THE GENUS 



FORMICA. 



By William Morton Wheeler. 

 Bussey Institution, Harvard University. 



WTiile revising the North American ants of the genus Formica, 

 I find that both Prof. Carlo Emery and myself have inadvertently 

 created several homonyms. The liability of doing this is, of course, 

 unusually great in the case of species of Formica, both because all 

 ants were originally included in this single genus and because many 

 of the old specific names have been long since either included 

 under other generic names or have been relegated to the limbo of 

 unrecognizable species. I propose the following new specific, sub- 

 specific and varietal names for seven of our Formiccc: 



1. Formica criniventris nom. nov. for F. crinita Wlieeler (1909). 

 Fred Smith described in 1858 a F. crinita which has been referred 

 by Mayr to the genus Lasius. 



2. Formica rufa L. subsp. aggerans nom. nov. for F. rufa ruhigi- 

 nosa Emery (1894). Latreille in 1802 described a F. rubiginosa 

 from a female specimen, which has not since been assigned to any 

 known species. 



3. Formica flammiventris nom. nov. for F. rufiventris Emery 

 (1894). An ant described in 1804 by Fabricius under this name 

 has been recognized as identical with Camponotus fulvopilosus 

 De Geer (1778). 



4. Formica fusca L. var. argentea nom. nov. for F. fusca var. 

 argentata \^'lieeler (1902). F. argentata described by Fabricius 

 in 1804 is a synonym of F. sexspinosa Latreille (1802), which is 

 a Myrma (Polyrhachis) . 



5. Formica rufibarhis Fabr. var. occidua nom. nov. for F. riifiharhis 

 var. occidentalis Wheeler (1910). Buckley described in 1866 a F. 

 occidentalis which has not since been recognized. 



6. Formica lasioides Emery var. vetula nom. nov. for F. lasioides 

 var. picea Emery (1894). A European variety of F. fusca was 

 designated as picea by Nylander in 1846. 



7. Formica pallidefulva Latr. subsp. schaiifussi var. dolosa nom. 

 nov. for var. meridionalis Wheeler (1904). A Siberian variety of 

 F. rufa was called meridionalis by Ruzsky in 1889. 



