wheeler: the ants of Alaska. 17 



3. Myrmica brevinodis var. kuschei, var. nov. 



Worker. Length 3-3.5 mm. 



Very similar in sculpture, pilosity, and color to the var. alaskensis 

 but averaging somewhat smaller, with shorter and straight, instead 

 of curved, epinotal spines, the antennal scapes very distinctly broader 

 and flatter at the base and with the middorsal portion of the post- 

 petiole smooth and shining. The clypeus has only about eight coarse 

 longitudinal rugae as in alaskensis. 



Female (dealated). Length 5.5 mm. 



Much darker than the worker, the head, thorax, petiole, postpetiole, 

 and gaster being castaneous, the mandibles, antennae, and legs 

 brownish yellow. Rugae on the body coarse, those on the pronotum 

 very coarse and vermiculate, on the remainder of the thorax longi- 

 tudinal, finer on the pleurae than on the mesonotum and scutellum. 

 Postpetiole above without a smooth area, sharply, regularly, and con- 

 centrically rugose, the rugae transverse at the posterior border. Sur- 

 face of body distinctly more shining than in the worker; pilosity very 

 similar. 



" Described from a female and twenty-three workers taken by Mr. 

 Kusche from a single colony at Ketchikan. 



The worker and female of this variety are readily distinguished from 

 the corresponding phases of the other described forms of brevinodis 

 by the peculiar sculpture of the dorsal surface of the postpetiole, the 

 sculpture in the worker recalling that of Myrmica scahrinodis var. 

 detritinodis Emery, while the postpetiolar rugae in the females of the 

 other forms are not regular and concentric but longitudinal and 

 irregular or interrupted. 



4. Myrmica scabrinodis Nylander subsp. lobicornis Nyl. var. 

 LOBiFRONS Pergande. 



Pergande described this form as M. sahuleti var. lobifrons but his 

 description is so brief as to apply to almost any small Myrmica. He 

 says merely that it measures 3 mm. and is dark brown or black, with 

 the "mandibles, antennae, legs, sides of the thorax and of the abdo- 

 men more or less distinctly yellowish brown, reddish brown or almost 

 black," and adds that it is "closely related to a form of Myrmica 

 sahuleti inhabiting South Dakota, but is somewhat larger and much 



