DONISTHORPEA. 217 



^ Pale yellow, or yellow with the head, and sometimes the gaster, reddish, 

 and in the larger specimens the whole body is more or less yellowish brown. Size 

 very variable. 



Head very slightly emarginate posteriorly; eyes smaller than in nigra 

 and aliena ; ocelli very small and indistinct ; frontal furrow indistinct ; 

 scape without outstanding hairs. Thorax pubescent and hairy above. Scale 



Fig. 84. Scales of (1) Donisthorpea ftava ^. (2) D. umbrata . 

 (3) D. mixta $. (Donisthorpe. ) 



low, broadest at apex, not, or only very slightly emarginate ; gaster very 

 pubescent. Tibiae without outstanding hairs. Long. 2-2-4-8 mm. (2-4 mm. 

 teste Andre.) 



? Brown, mandibles brownish red, cheeks, antennae, underside of the gaster 

 and legs yellow. 



Head small, narrower than thorax, very slightly emarginate posteriorly ; 

 scape without outstanding hairs. Thorax narrower than gaster. Scale 

 emarginate. Tibiae without outstanding hairs. Wings infuscate at the 

 base for half their length. Long. 7-9-2 mm. 



$ Blackish brown, shining, antennae and legs brown, with the funiculus 

 tarsi and articulations of the joints of the legs lighter. 



Head shining ; frontal furrow indistinct, often with a transverse impres- 

 sion before ocelli ; mandibles with one tooth (very rarely with a few small 

 teeth on the terminal border), black-brown ; scape without outstanding 

 hairs ; eyes with a few microscopical hairs. Thorax narrowly testaceous at 

 the insertion of the wings. Tibiae without outstanding hairs. Wings slightly 

 infuscate. Long. 3-7-5 mm. (3-4 mm. teste Andre.) 



Original description of Formica ftava Fabricius [Spec. Insect. 1 

 491 (1781)] : 



" F. flaua, abdomine ouato pubescente. 



Formica flaua squama petiolari. Degeer. Ins. 2.2.326. 



5 tab. 42. fig. 24-28. 



Habitat in Europae borealis syluis. 



Parua, magnitudine tamen differ t." 



Habitat. 



Donisthorpea flava ranges over the whole of Europe. Ruzsky 

 records it from the Caucasus and Siberia, and it is represented in 

 North America by the subspecies nearcticus Wheeler. Dalla Torre 25 

 sinks Formica ruficornis Fabricius [Syst. Piez. 397 (1804) from 

 India, and Formica mellea Provancher [Nat. Canada 12 356 (1881)] 

 from Canada as synonyms of this species, but the descriptions of 

 neither of them agree with D. flava, and the latter is probably 

 synonymous with the nearcticus Wheeler. It is widely distributed 

 in the British Isles, but I have no records in England from South 

 Wilts, Monmouth, South-East and North- West Yorks., Westmore- 

 land, and the Isle of Man ; in Scotland for Dumfries, Kirkcudbright- 





