THE TAXONOMIC STATUS AND BIOGEOGRAPHIC 
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SUMATRAN FORMICA 
(FORMICIDAE, HYMENOPTERA)* 
By Andre Francoeur 
Departement des Sciences Pures, Universite 
du Quebec a Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada 
G7H 2B1 
In a paper on the occurrence of Formica fusca in Sumatra, W. 
M. Wheeler (1927) erected the variety fairchildi for 12 workers 
collected above Kota Dah at an altitude of 4,000 feet in a pine 
forest. It has never been found again as far as I know. The ex- 
amination of 10 of these specimens located in 3 different U.S. 
museums revealed a surprising similarity with Formica glacialis, 
a name that I have recently resurrected in a taxonomic revision of 
the nearctic species belonging to the Formica fusca group (Fran- 
coeur, 1973). I compared workers of F. fairchildi to F. glacialis 
types and topotypes collected by me at South Harpswell, Maine, 
and no significant difference was noted. All the above specimens 
meet very well my description of the F. glacialis worker. There- 
fore the formal synonymy is: 
Formica glacialis 
Formica fusca var. glacialis Wheeler, 1908, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. History 24: 624, 
worker, female, male. 
Formica fusca fusca: Wheeler (in part), 1913, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 
53: 494-497. 
Formica fusca: Creighton (in part), 1950, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 104: 
532. 
Formica glacialis: Francoeur, 1973, Memoire Soc. Ent. Quebec 3: 152-161. 
Formica fusca var. fairchildi Wheeler, 1927, Psyche 34: 40-41, worker. Lectotype 
in MCZ, paratypes in AMNH, MCZ, USNM. new synonymy. 
This new synonymy eliminates the concept of a distinctive form 
of Formica in the southern half of the Oriental region. The pres- 
ence of the genus in northern Sumatra perhaps may now be con- 
sidered as an unexplained introduction rather than a tropical relict 
as reinterpreted by Gregg (1969) from Wheeler (1927). However, 
* Manuscript received by the editor August 11, 1977 
11 
