118 Psyche [August 
THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF MYRMICA ALLIED TO 
M. RUBIDA LATREILLE.! 
By WituiamM Morton WHEELER. 
The large and handsome Myrmica rubida Latreille remained for 
many years the only species of an aberrant group within its genus. 
In 1894 Emery described the first American species of this group, 
M. mutica, from Denver, Colo., and five years ago I added a species 
from California, M. bradleyi. Two additional species, M. aldrichi 
and hunteri, from Idaho and Montana respectively, have since 
come to light and are described in the following pages. Thus all 
of the American forms are known only from the mountainous 
regions of the Western States. The single Old World species 
occurs in similar localities in Central and Southern Europe and as 
far east as the Caucasus in Asia Minor and Eastern Siberia. I have 
had abundant opportunity to study M. rubida in the Rhone valley 
and other localities in Switzerland and M. mutica at Colorado 
Springs and in neighboring localities in Colorado. Both species 
have very similar habits. They usually nest in sandy creek bot- 
toms under stones or in small crater nests. The workers of both 
species sting severely, especially the Eurasian M. rubida, but neither 
is very aggressive. The pupe have a peculiar canary yellow 
color, unlike that of any other species of the genus. 
As all five of the species now recognized are closely related to 
one another and constitute a sharply defined group, I propose to 
separate them from Myrmica sens. str. as a subgenus, Oreomyrma, 
subgen. nov., with M. rubida Latr. as the type (Fig. la). The 
workers and females in this subgenus are distinguished by having 
the epinotum unarmed, the antennal club 5-jointed and the mandi- 
bles with two large apical and 12-14 minute basal teeth. The 
male has no club to the antennal funiculi and the mandibles are 
like those of the worker. In Myrmica sens. str., with the type 
M. rubra L., the antennal club of the worker and female is 3-or 4- 
jointed, the mandibles have only 7-12 teeth and the epinotum is 
armed with a pair of spines. The males have a distinct 4- or 
5-jointed antennal club, and their mandibles are only 4—8-toothed. 
1Contributions from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institution, Harvard 
University, No. 79. 
