MYRMICA C^SSPITUM. 2/ 



Myrmica impura, Foerst. Hi/m. Stud. Form. 48. 22 § . 

 Myrmica modesta, Foerst. Hym. Stud. Form. 49. 23 £ . 

 Myrmica caespitum, Latr. Hist. Nat. Crust, et Ins. xiii. 259. 



Losana, Form. Picm. 327. 



Curtis, Trans. Linn. Soc. xxi. 215. 8. 



Smith, Brit. Form. 122. 



Nyl. Form. Fr. et d 'Alger. 86. 13. 

 Tetraraorium caespitum, Mayr, Form. Austr. 154. 2. 



Female. Length 3j lines. — Shining black, or sometimes dark 

 fuscous ; head narrower than the thorax and longitudinally 

 striated, subopake ; the mandibles, antennae, articulations of 

 the legs and the tarsi pale ferruginous ; the scape slightly fuscous 

 above. Thorax somewhat flattened above, with the mesothorax 

 longitudinally striated behind, and having on each side before 

 the insertion of the wings a short impressed line ; the meta- 

 thorax longitudinally striated above in the middle of its base, 

 and transversely so beyond ; the spines short and acute ; wings 

 hyaline, the nervures pale, the stigma fuscous. Abdomen ob- 

 long-ovate, with the apical margins of the segments rufo-tes- 

 taceous ; the basal node of the petiole subovate, the second 

 transverse. 



Worker. Length \\-2 lines.— Usually rather paler than the 

 female ; the head subrectangular, wider than the thorax, and 

 longitudinally striated ; the thorax also striated longitudinally ; 

 the metathoracic spines short, upright, and acute ; the nodes 

 of the petiole smooth, and of the same form as in the female ; 

 abdomen very smooth and shining, the apex usually more or 

 less pale ferruginous. 



Male. Length 2|-3 lines.— Shining black, with the abdomen 

 usually more or less obscurely fusco-ferruginous ; the antennae, 

 mandibles, articulations of the legs and the tarsi pale rufo-tes- 

 taceous ; the wings fusco-hyaline, the nervures pale testaceous, 

 with the stigma darker. The head narrower than the thorax 

 and finely rugose ; the thorax longitudinally and finely striated, 

 a smooth shining space in the middle, anteriorly with a similar 

 smooth space on each side. Abdomen ovate, smooth, and 

 shining ; the nodes of the petiole finely rugose. 



Although the antennae are said to be 10-jointed, it will be 

 found that the third joint is really composed of three joints of 

 equal thickness, and as it were soldered together. This species 

 is local, but very abundant on the coast in many places ; it cer- 

 tainly prefers such situations to inland localities. It is plentiful 

 in the Isle of Wight at Luccomb and Shanklin, also in Sandown 

 Bay and at Ventnor ; its colonies are large and numerous below 



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