Or 
WHEELER: ANTS OF THE GENUS FORMICA. 51 
Worker. Length 4-7.5 mm. 
Very closely related to F’. fusca and scarcely differing in structural 
characters. The epinotum is distinctly angular in profile; the 
petiole rather broad, compressed anteroposteriorly, with broadly 
rounded, entire, rather sharp superior border. Legs and antennae 
long. 
Head, thorax, and gaster, including the frontal area, opaque, densely 
shagreened, venter and legs feebly shining. 
Hairs yellow, very sparse, present on the upper surface of the head, 
pronotum and gaster, and sometimes also on the petiole and other 
parts of the thorax. Pubescence dense and rather long, concealing 
the surface, but without a silky gloss. 
Pale red, posterodorsal portion of head and the gaster blackish 
brown. Mandibles dark red; funiculi, except at the base, the coxae 
and sometimes also the middle portions of the femora, infuscated. 
Rarely in large workers the pro- and mesonotum are slightly infuscated. 
In small workers the infuscation of the thorax may be more extensive. 
Fremate. Length 9-11 mm. 
Resembling the worker in sculpture, pubescence, and color, but the 
posterior margin of the pronotum, the scutellum, metanotum, more 
or less of the pleural region, and three elongate blotches on the mesono- 
tum, dark brown. The venter is usually reddish. Wings grayish 
hyaline, with pale brown veins and darker stigma. Hairs longer and 
more abundant than in the worker, especially on the thoracic dorsum. 
Mae. Length 9-10 mm. 
Very similar to the male of fusca and its varieties, but the thorax 
and gaster are more robust. Mandibles pointed, edentate. Petiole 
though thick and low, with a sharp, compressed and very broadly 
and distinctly excised border. 
Body opaque, gaster scarcely shining. Frontal area opaque. 
Hairs very sparse, present on the head, thoracic dorsum, and venter, 
but absent elsewhere. Pubescence grayish, short and dense. 
Black; legs and genitalia yellow; tarsi of the former and tips of 
appendages of the latter infuscated; tips of mandibles brown. Wings 
uniformly gray as in the female. 
Widely distributed through Europe and Northern Asia and occur- 
ring in Sardinia though absent from the smaller Mediterranean Is- 
lands. It is a distinctly xerothermal form and in the Alps does not 
reach such an elevation as the typical fusca. According to Ruzsky, 
however, it occurs at an altitude of 3,000 m. in the Caucasus, and 
according to Forel even higher in the Himalayas. 
Although this ant is so very close to fusca in its morphological struc- 
ture, I have nevertheless followed the majority of authors in regarding 
it as a species and not as a subspecies of fusca. P. Huber and Forel 
