FORMICA. 265 



and in fact looking more like exsecta nests. The workers were of 

 a yellow-red colour with a neat, well-marked black spot on the 

 pronotum, this is very distinct in some specimens, which also 

 have another black spot on the mesonotum 9 . Several nests of rufo- 

 pratensis, superficially like exsecta nests, were again found in 

 Parkhurst Forest on June 29th, 1913, which were situated in 

 clumps of grass (Aim caespitosa) 11 . A deflated female was taken, 

 but only worker cocoons were present, and in August another 

 dealated female, and a male, were found in the same locality. The 

 male appears to have the wings a little blacker than in rufa, probably 

 only an individual variety, and the females have the gaster duller 

 and more punctured than in rufa proper. 



I have seen specimens of rufo-pratensis taken by Butler at Bexhill, 

 by Best Gardner at Briton Ferry in Glamorgan, by W. Gardner at 

 Deganwy and Crotnant near Denbeigh, by Rothney at Bourne- 

 mouth, by H. Scott at Kings teign ton, South Devon, and Wheeler 

 tells me he took it at Low Wood, on Lake Windermere, when he 

 was in England in 1912. 



The following myrmecophiles have been taken with F. rufa v. 

 rufo-pratensis in Britain : 



Coleoptera : Oxypoda haemorrhoa Sahl., Thiasophila angulata Er., 

 Notothecta flavipes Gr., N. anceps Er., Homalota parallela Man., 

 Quedius brevis Er., Leptacinus formicetorum Mark., Dendrophilus 

 pygmaeus L., Monotoma conicicollis Aub., and Clythra quadri- 

 punctata L. (larvae). 



Braconidae : Pachylomma buccata Nees (large specimens). 



Diptera : Phyllomyza formicae Collin. 



Araneina : Thyreosthenius biovata Camb. 



Acarina : Laelaps oophilus Wasm. 



Formica rufa L. var. alpina Sants. 



Formica rufa var alpina Santschi Bull. Soc. Ent. France 1911 349 1 ; Forel 

 Rev. Suisse Zool. 19 458 (1911 ) 2 ; Donisthorpe Entom. 44 390 (1911 ) 3 : Ent. 

 Rec. 24 8 (1912) 4 ; Emery Deutschr. Ent. Zeitschr. 1912 672 5 . Formica 

 rufa rufa var. santschii Wheeler Bull. Mus. Compar. Zool. 53 428 (1913) 6 . 

 Formica rufa var alpina Donisthorpe Ent. Rec. 26 40 (1914) 7 . 



Fig. 88. 1. Head of Formica rufa $. 



2. Head of F. rufa v. alpina Q. 



^ Size and colour much as in rufa, but with closer and slightly more abundant 

 pubescence, and distinctly more hairy in the Rannoch specimens. 



Head long, narrow, with straight cheeks ; frontal area duller and more 



