MYRMICA. 115 



Myrmiea laevinodis Nyl. var. ruginodo-laevinodis Forel. 



Myrmica rubra race ruginodo-laevinodis Forel Den. Schw. Ges. NW. 26 

 77-79 (1874) 1 . Myrmica ruginodo-laevinodis Andre Spec. Hym. 2 319 (1881) 2 ; 

 Forel Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. 30 137 (1886) 3 . Myrmica laevinodis Nyl. var. 

 ruginodo-laevinodis Dalla Torre Cat. Hym. 7111 (1893) 4 . Myrmica laevinodis 

 v. laevinodi-ruginodis Escherich Ameise 216 (1906) 5 . Myrmica ruginodis- 

 levinodis Emery Deutsch. Ent. Zeitschr. 1908 169 6 . Myrmica laevinodo- 

 ruginodis Donisthorpe Ent. Rec. 25 7 (1913) 7 ; Hallett Cardiff Nat. Soc. 

 Trans. 45 2 (1913) 8 . Myrmica ruginodis var laevinodo-ruginodis Donisthorpe 

 Ent. Rec. 25 267 (1913) 9 . Myrmica laevinodis var ruginodo-laevincdis Donis- 

 thorpe Ent. Rec. 26 138 (1914) 10 . 



Forel 1 pointed out in his admirable work on the Ants of Switzer- 

 land that frequent transitions occur between M . laevinodis and 

 M. ruginodis, in which the length of the epinotal spines, etc., is 

 intermediate, and for which he proposed the name ruginodo- 

 laevinodis. It seems better, therefore, to include all such inter- 

 mediate forms, whether they come nearer to laevinodis, or to 

 ruginodis, under this name. 



Central Europe is given as the habitat of this variety by Dalla 

 Torre 4 , but it probably occurs wherever laevinodis and ruginodis 

 are to be found. 



Such forms certainly occur in Britain Hallett sent me specimens 

 from Glamorgan 8 , which had the spines shorter than in ordinary 

 ruginodis, but the space between rugose, etc. 7 ; a similar female 

 specimen was sent to me by S. O. Taylor, who took it at Groby 

 Pool, Leicestershire, in August, 1913, and Hamm has found it at 

 Shotover and Beckley in Oxfordshire, winged females being taken 

 in the former nest on May 5th, 1907. I have taken it in the New 

 Forest and I found a colony on Lundy Island 9 , in which the length 

 of the spines and the rugosity of the whole body is intermediate 

 between laevinodis and ruginodis, the space between the spines 

 being feebly striate transversely. A small dealated female taken 

 in this colony only measures 5 "5 mm. 



Forel 3 records finding a colony of M . ruginodo-laevinodis which 

 was leaving its old nest, and proceeding to a new one in the moss. 

 The ants were walking very fast, carrying their fellows and their 

 brood, and he noticed that the males being carried were grasped 

 by the thorax with their legs and antennae folded up, in the same 

 way that the pupae are carried by the workers. 



Wallace -Kew captured two specimens of the beetle Atemeles 

 emarginatus var. nigricollis Kr. in a nest of this variety situated 

 under a large stone at Countisbury near Lynmouth in Devonshire 

 in October, 1912 10 . 



Myrmica ruginodis Nyl. 



Myrmica ruginodis Nylander Acta. Soc. Sc. Fenn. 2 929 (1846). 1 Myrmica 

 diluta Nylander Acta. Soc. Sc. Fenn. 3 41 (1849) 2 . Myrmica vagans Curtis 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 2 213 (1854) 3 . Myrmica ruginodis F. Smith Trans. 

 Ent. Soc. Lond. (n.s.) 3 116 (1855) 4 : 4 279 (1858) 5 : Cat. Brit. Foss. Hym. 



