1905.] Wheeler, N^ew species of Formica. 27 I 



thorax and on all parts of the legs. There are a few conspicuous erect hairs 

 along the anterior or flexor surfaces of the antennal scapes, on the lower sur- 

 face of the head, and on the border of the petiole. On the gaster the long hairs 

 are sparse and arranged in three regular rows on the first and second, in two 

 rows on the succeeding segments. 



Mandibular teeth and gaster black, remainder of body dull yellowish red. 

 Antennas, legs, posterior portion of head, mesonotum, scutellum, and metano- 

 tum decidedly darker. The anteromedian and parapsidal blotches are faintly 

 indicated on the mesonotum. Wings rather opaque, grayish hyaline, with 

 fuscous veins and black stigma. 



Male. — Length, 6.5-7 mm. 



Mandibles pointed, edentulous. Head short, broadest through the e3''es; 

 posterior comers broadly rounded; cheeks short, flattened, converging in front. 

 Clypeus carinate in front, depressed behind. Thorax just in front of the wings 

 hardly broader than the head through the eyes. There is a median longitudinal 

 depression on the base of the epinotum, and the tnetanotum is concave. Petiole 

 very thick and blunt above, anterior and posterior surfaces both convex, border 

 with a faint median notch. 



Head, thorax, legs, and antennas subopaque, finely shagreened; mandibles, 

 clypeus, vertex, and scutellum shining as are also the petiole and especially the 

 gaster. 



Hairs and pubescence grayish, the former short and erect on the clypeus, 

 thorax, gaster, and legs; the latter sparse and indistinct except on the antennae 

 and legs. Eyes almost imperceptibly hairj''. 



Black; mouth-parts, legs, and genitalia fuscous. Wings like those of the 

 female but of a slightly darker tint. 



Described from numerous workers and females and two males 

 from a single colony found near the summit of Mt. Pisgah (altitude 

 about 1400 feet), at Colebrook, Litchfield County, Conn., and several 

 workers taken at Black Hawk Spring, near Rockford, 111. 



F. nepticula is very closely related to the form I have called F . 

 microgyna var. nevadensis {vide infra) and known only from a single 

 female specimen from Ormsby County, Nevada. The female nepti- 

 cula differs, however, in having much fewer erect hairs on the antennal 

 scapes and body and, owing to the nearly complete absence of 

 grayish pubescence, a more shining head and thorax. Moreover, 

 the head, thorax and appendages are decidedly darker and less 

 red than in nevadensis . The worker nepticula resembles that of F . 

 dryas in coloration and the peculiar lustre of the gaster, but its average 

 size is less, it has erect hairs on the antennal scapes, the border of the 

 clypeus projects in the form of an angle instead of being transverse, 

 and the epinotum is much rounder and without a flattened declivity. 



The Colebrook colony of nepticula was first seen during August, 

 1904, and was mistaken for a colony of F. dryas, as only workers were 



