FORMICA. 319 



scapes, le l er article des funicules et les pattes sont d'un rouge jaunatre, sauf 

 deux taches brunes situees sur le pronotum et le mesonotum, taches qui 

 ressemblent a celles de la F. pratensis et confluent a peu pres. La petite 

 ouvriere se distingue a peine de la var. glebaria Nyl (fusca des pres, Forel, 

 Fourmis de la Suisse), la couleur rougeatre y disparaissant a peu pres. La 

 grande Q atteint pres de 7 mill. ; c'est la plus grande variete de la F. fusca, 

 dans nos parages. De meme que la v. glebaria, elle vit dans les pres, ou 

 elle fait des domes maQonnes, tandis que la fusca vera, qui est bien moins 

 pubescente, un peu plus lisse et plus luisante, vit surtout dans les troncs 

 pourris et sous les pierres. On a confondu encore tres sou vent la var. rubescens 

 de la fusca avec la r. ruftbarbis F., qui a des moeurs fort differentes, et qui 

 est surtout bien plus courageuse. La ruftbarbis typique, ^ major, n'a pas les 

 deux taches brunes sur le pronotum et le mesonotum ; seule sa petite ^ a le 

 thorax en partie brun." 



Habitat. 



According to Wheeler this variety is known only from Central 

 Europe, and is common in Switzerland 11 . 



British distribution : 



Devon, S. : Seaton (Donisthorpe) 12 ; Sidmouth (Perkins). 



Dorset : Lyme Regis (Nevinsori). 



Isle of Wight : Landslip (Donisthorpe) 1 *. 



Hants, S. : New Forest (Donisthorpe) 12 . 



Sussex, E. : Fairlight (Donisthorpe). 



Kent, E. : Rodmersham (Crawley). 



Surrey : Box Hill (Bedwell) ; Caterham (Champion) ; Woking 

 (Donisthorpe). 



Essex : Southend 1 (sub cunicularia F. Smith Coll.). 



Middlesex : Crouch Hill (E. A. Butler). 



Gloucester : Kilcot (Perkins). 



Worcester : Bewdley (Donisthorpe}* 8 . 



Glamorgan : Horton, Gower (Hallett). 



Formica fusca var. rubescens has the same habits and lives in 

 similar situations to glebaria, and in Switzerland it dwells in 

 meadows and constructs earth-mounds. 



In May, 1908, I discovered a fine colony of this variety on the 

 side of the railway embankment at Bewdley, its nest being partly 

 situated under a large heavy stone, partly in the bank, with earth 

 built up round the stone 8 . In the New Forest it occurs in earth- 

 mounds, at Seaton under stones, in the Landslip, Isle of Wight, in 

 the side of the cliff, and at Fairlight I found it both in the side of 

 the cliff and in earth-mounds in the under-cliff one of the nests 

 being traced by tracking a worker which was carrying home a fly 

 in its jaws. In 1908 no queen could be found in the Bewdley 

 colony, and when the same nest was visited in July, 1909, many 

 males were found to be present but no winged females, and again 

 no queen was discovered. 



It would appear that the queen had died in this colony, and the 

 males had been reared from parthenogenetic eggs laid by the 

 workers 8 . 



