wheeler: the ants of alaska. 19 



All agree with the typical form of the subspecies from the Canadian 

 zone of southern British America and the United States in lacking 

 erect hairs on the thorax and in having only a very few inconspicuous 

 hairs on the dorsal surface of the head. The slaves in several of the 

 colonies were workers of F. fusca var. gelida and var. neorufibarbis. 

 Some of the colonies contained a few small subnuda pseudogynes. If 

 Wasmann's and Muckermann's contention is correct, that pseudogynes 

 are produced only as the result of the presence of staphylinid beetles 

 of the tribe Lomechusini (species of Xenodusa in North America) 

 in the sanguinea nests, we must suppose that these beetles range as 

 far north as Alaska. This has not been demonstrated, so that my 

 suggestion that pseudogynes may also be produced by other causes, 

 is still worthy of consideration, especially as Mr. Horace Donisthorpe 

 "writes me that he is also of the opinion that pseudogynes occasionally 

 make their appearance in British sanguinea colonies which have 

 never been infested by lomechusine parasites. 



8. Formica fusca Linne. 



A number of workers taken by Mr. Kusche at Fort Yukon belong 

 to the typical black form of this species, which is widely distributed, 

 not only in the Canadian zone of North America, as I have shown in 

 previous articles (Bull. M. C. Z., 1913, 53, p. 496; Proc. Amer. acad. 

 sci., 1917, 52, p. 545) but also throughout boreal Eurasia as far north 

 as latitude 65°. 



9. Formica fusca var. marcida Wheeler. 



I refer to this variety a dealated female and thirty-six workers taken 

 by Mr. Kusche from a single colony at White Horse, Yukon, and a 

 series of workers which he took at Fort Yukon, Alaska. The former 

 are fully as large as the typical /«^ra and have the mandibles, antennae, 

 and legs of an even paler and purer brownish yellow color than in the 

 types which were taken in the Selkirk Mts. of British Columbia, the 

 latter are much more like the types in size and color. This variety 

 has also been taken in Alberta, Manitoba, Washington, and California 

 but always in an alpine environment. 



