118 BRITISH ANTS. 



North Hants, Herts, Cambridgeshire, Bedford, Northampton, East 

 Gloucester, Monmouth, Hereford, Salop, Derby ; and in Scotland 

 for Kircudbrightshire, Wigtown, Selkirk, Roxburgh, North Perth, 

 Forfar, South and North Aberdeen, Banff, the Clyde Isles and 

 South and North Ebudes, East Ross and West Sutherland. 



Myrmica ruginodis occurs in uncultivated places, nesting under 

 stones, in rotten stumps, at the edges of woods and roads, etc., and 

 appears to require less moisture than laevinodis (though Fryer sent 

 specimens to me from a colony he had discovered in June, 1912, 

 in Woodwalton Fen, the nest being situated in the peat), and 

 according to Forel 11 both these species are entirely missing in arid 

 places. 



Praeger found specimens of this ant in a Puffin's nest on the 

 Bills Rocks on Clare Island in June, 1910 32 . 



Andre points out that ruginodis is often found in higher latitudes 

 than laevinodis, reaching the alpine regions 17 , and Forel says it 

 extends to the region of the fir trees, recording it from Sieben- 

 brunnen at 1460 metres, and Dischmathal at over 1600 metres 10 . 

 Hull found colonies up to 1900 ft., at West Allendale in March, 

 1912 33 , Johnson up to 1500 ft., on Clare Island 32 , and I have taken 

 it on Snowdon. 



Occasionally its colonies are found in close proximity to other 

 ants' nests Wheeler, when in England in August, 1912, observed 

 a colony close to nests of M . laevinodis and M . scabrinodis on the 

 hill at the back of Wordsworth's cottage at Grasmere, Morley 

 found it nesting under the same stone as Donisthorpea flava at 

 Killaloe in 1913, and I discovered it in company with the latter 

 species in the same earth mound at Luccombe Chine in August, 

 1913. 



Wasmann 23 records that in July, 1886, he found colonies of 

 M. ruginodis inhabiting the nests of the wood-ants Formica 

 pratensis, and F. rufa. In the first case most of the pratensis had 

 deserted their nest, but in the other it was quite different here 

 the rufa colony was a very populous one and the ruginodis, which 

 consisted of a fairly strong colony with about one hundred larvae 

 and pupae, had established its nest in a small hollow in the upper 

 part of the former's hillock. They had probably selected this 

 situation to take advantage of the higher temperature they would 

 obtain there to bring up their brood. At first there would have 

 been some fighting between the two species, but eventually, as is 

 the case with strange ants which nest under the same stone, etc., 

 they would become indifferent to each other, and leave each other 

 alone. 



M. ruginodis, in common with laevinodis, is a warlike ant and 

 stings fiercely, and Bignell 24 records what he took to be an instance 

 of its making war on its own species. He states that : " Rambling 



