FORMICA. 247 



dull, with very short fine pubescence, and suberect hairs more abundant than 

 on the head or thorax. Legs long, robust, furnished with only decumbent 

 pubescence, except the usual bristles. Long. 4-9'5 mm. 



$ Red, vertex of head, clypeus, thorax above, except anterior portion of 

 pronotum, some spots at the insertion of the wings, and epinotum ; gaster except 

 base, antennae, and legs except base of femora, black or blackish brown. 



Head as in ^. Thorax robust, high. Scale without hairs ; gaster shining, 

 more or less smooth, without suberect hairs, and with pubescence wanting, 

 or very scanty. Legs with only the usual bristles, and with very short and 

 sparse decumbent pubescence. Wings somewhat infuscate, with brownish 

 yellow pterostigma and veins. Long. 9-5-12 mm. 



cJ Black ; genitalia reddish yellow ; legs reddish, or dark brown with knees 

 lighter. 



Head rather small, triangular, not excised posteriorly ; clypeus carinate, 

 convex, not emarginate anteriorly ; mandibles only toothed at apex ; frontal 

 area dull, slightly punctured, or simply alutaceous ; eyes with sparse hairs. 



Thorax with rather abundant erect black hairs ; mesonotum rugose and 

 dull, with large, scattered, pit-like punctures ; scutellum more shining. Scale 

 thick, emarginate at apex, furnished with some scattered long hairs ; gaster 

 shining above, with erect hairs scarce, or wanting, and scanty, not close, 

 pubescence. Wings as in $. Legs without suberect hairs, except the usual 

 bristles. Long. 10-11 mm. 



Original description of Formica rufa Linnaeus [Syst. Nat. Ed. 10 

 1 580 (1758)] : 



" F. thorace compresso toto ferrugineo, capite abdomineque nigris. 

 Fn. suec. 1020 Formica rufa. 

 Raj. ins. 69. Formica media rubra. 

 Habitat in Europae acervis acerosis sylvaticis ; in America septentrionali. 



Habitat. 



Formica rufa ranges over North and Central Europe as far south 

 as the Pyrenees and the southern slopes of the Alps, occurring 

 in the Caucasus and Siberia, and in the mountains only in 

 South Europe 93 . In Britain it is widely distributed in England, 

 but in Scotland its range is peculiar, and in Ireland it is scarce. 

 Buchanan- White writes in 1872 : " It does not appear to occur in 

 Scotland south of a line beginning at Arran in the South-West, and 

 then passing in a North-Easterly direction along the line of the 

 Grampians, through Ben Lomond, Dunkeld, and Dee-Side, and 

 reaching the East coast probably somewhere in Aberdeenshire." 34 

 It is certainly very remarkable that it does not appear to occur 

 between Dumbarton and Stirling, and the English border. It has 

 been found in Ireland in Armagh, Wicklow, Wexford, East Galway, 

 Waterford, and Kerry, and in Wales in Glamorgan, Merioneth, 

 Carnarvon, Denbigh, and Anglesey. I have no records in England 

 for East Cornwall, North Somerset, South Wilts, Herts, West 

 Suffolk, West Norfolk, Bedford, Hunts, Northampton, East 

 Gloucester, North Lincoln, South Lancashire, South, East, and 

 North-West Yorks, Westmoreland, and in Scotland, north of the 

 Forth, for Fife and Kinross, North Perth, Kincardine, North 

 Aberdeen, Banff, West Ross, West Sutherland, and Caithness, 



