306 BRITISH ANTS. 



and may be re garded as a transitional to that variety. Should it 

 be possible or further study to detect any satisfactory differences 

 between American and Eurasian specimens, the term glacialis 

 would, of course, have to be reinstated 58 . 



In Britain F. fusca is very widely distributed, but does not, as 

 far as I know, range higher than an elevation of 2000 feet in 1910 

 I found it in numbers on Beinn-a-Bhuird, a mountain at Braemar 

 over 4000 feet high, with perpetual snow on the top, but the fusca 

 colonies which were under stones, appeared to cease below 2000 

 feet 52 . 



I have no records in England, from South Wilts, Herts, Hunts, 

 Northampton, East Gloucester, Monmouth, Hereford, Salop, 

 South-East Yorks, Isle of Man ; in Wales for Brecon, Cardigan, 

 Montgomery, and Carnarvon ; and in Scotland, Selkirk, Rox- 

 burgh, North Aberdeen, Banff, North Ebudes, East Ross, East 

 and West Sutherland, Caithness, the Hebrides, the Orkneys, and 

 the Shetlands. In Ireland I have records only from Antrim, Down, 

 Armagh, Tyrone, Donegal, Fermanagh, Louth, Dublin, Kildare, 

 Wicklow, Carlow, Westmeath, West Mayo, Clare, North Tipperary, 

 South Cork, and Kerry. 



Formica fusca, which according to Wheeler is indistinguishable 

 by any satisfactory characters from the F. flori Mayr of the Baltic 

 Amber 49 , is an abundant and widely distributed species, nesting 

 in woods, meadows, and uncultivated places, but also occurs in 

 gardens, under the steps and foundations of houses, in walls, etc. 

 It prefers damp and shady places, but can also live in sunny and 

 dry spots, and its nests are situated under stones and logs, in rotten 

 tree stumps, and fallen branches, in banks and at the roots of 

 herbage, etc. I have found it occupying the deserted nests of 

 F. rufa and F. exsecta QO , but it never, of its own accord, heaps any 

 vegetable refuse over its nests, though it sometimes constructs an 

 earthen mound. Its methods of building its chambers and galleries 

 are not so elaborate nor so perfect as those of Donisthorpea nigra ; 

 Huber describes the architecture oifusca 10 , but as Forel has pointed 

 out this is not as regular nor as complete as stated by the former 

 author 21 . 



The colonies of fusca are usually only of medium size, and often 

 very small ; very large ones being of rare occurrence. 



In September, 1911, I observed a very small race of fusca, the 

 nest of which was situated under a stone on the Isle of Eigg 54 ; the 

 ground beneath being too stony to allow the nest to be properly 

 dug up, no female was found, but all the workers were exceedingly 

 small, measuring little over 4 mm. in length. 



F. fusca is a shy and cowardly ant, fleeing before danger, and 

 as it is abundant, it naturally lends itself to exploitation by other 

 species. It is very agile and rapid in its movements, but possesses 

 no tactics, not knowing how to effect a combined defence of its 



