314 BRITISH ANTS. 



var. fusco-rufibarbis, and neither does Wheeler in his monograph 

 of the Genus Formica [Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 53 379-565 (1913)]. 



Recently I sent to Wheeler a large number of specimens, males, 

 females, and workers, of what I had endeavoured to separate into 

 rubescens, glebaria, and fusco-rufibarbis, and he was only able to 

 detect rubescens and glebaria among them, and in these determina- 

 tions I entirely concur. 



Wasmann considers fusco-rufibarbis to be a variety of rufibarbis 

 F., mainly because the beetles Atemeles paradoxus and Dinar da 

 pygmaea are found with these two ants, and not with fusca ; but 

 having received from me specimens of what is called glebaria by 

 Emery, Wheeler, and myself, he tells me this is his fusco-rufibarbis, 

 and says " Between these two forms (glebaria and rubescens} and 

 the true rufibarbis, there are so many transitions, that it is hard to 

 make them varieties of fusca instead of rufibarbis." 



The smaller workers of glebaria and rubescens are almost indis- 

 tinguishable, and even of rufibarbis the small dark workers cannot 

 be distinguished by their colour alone ; this species can, however, 

 always be recognized by the outstanding yellow hairs on the 

 thorax these are not present in fusca or its varieties. It may be 

 stated emphatically that it is useless to take odd specimens of 

 these varieties and expect to name them with any certainty. If 

 however a number of specimens be taken, the habits of the ants 

 and the nature of their nest noted, all sexes of the form (supposing 

 that to be possible) collected, and the individuals from different 

 nests not mixed, they can be accurately determined. 



Under the Habitat of these forms I only give such British locali- 

 ties as I am personally acquainted with or from which I have 

 actually seen specimens, as no good purpose could be served by 

 reprinting dubious records of ants under the names of " cunicu- 

 laria," etc. 



Formica fusca L., var. glebaria Nyl. 



Formica glebaria Nylander Acta. Soc. Sc. Fenn. 2 917-919. Pf. 18-14 

 (1846) 1 ; Forster Hym. Stud. 1 31-32 (1850) 2 . Formica cunicularia F. 

 Smith Zool. 9 3249 (1851) 3 : Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (n.s.) 3 102-104 (1855) 4 

 [in part ?] : Cat. Brit. Foss. Hym. 8 (1858) 5 [in part ?] : Ent. Mo. Mag. 2 

 29 (1865) 6 [in part ?] : Ent. Ann. 1870 28 7 : 1872 95 8 : Ent. Mo. Mag. 11 

 111 (1874) 9 . Formica fusca " des pres " Forel Denkschr. Schweiz. Ges. 

 Naturw. 26 54 (1874) 10 . [Formica cunicularia Cooke Nat. 5 73 (1879) 11 ?] ; 

 [Service Scot. Nat. 5 63 (1879) 12 ?] [Parfitt Trans. Devon Assn. Sc-Lit. 12 

 513 (1880) 13 ?] ; Fowler Ent. Mo. Mag. 21 37 (1884) 14 ; Farren- White Ants' 

 Ways 233 (1895) 15 [in part]. Formica rufibarbis Saunders Hym-Acul. 22 

 (1896) 16 [in part]. [Formica fusca race cunicularia Cuthbert Irish Nat. 6 

 324 (1897) 17 : 7 67 (1898) 18 ?] ; Vic. Hist. Hants 1 115 (1900) 19 [in part ?] ; 

 [Vic. Hist. Essex 1 98 (1903) 20 ?] ; [Vic. Hist. Sussex 1 131 (1905) 21 ?] ; 

 Vic. Hist. Devonshire 1 187 (1906) 22 ; [Vic. Hist. Berks 1 76 (1906) 23 ?]. 

 Formica rufibarbis var. fusco-rufibarbis (teste Wasmann) Donisthorpe Ent. 

 Rec. 18 217 (1906) 24 . [Formica fusca race rufibarbis Vic. Hist. Yorks 1 

 216 (1907) 25 ?]. Formica fusca race cunicularia Vic. Hist. Kent 1 116 



