THE GUEST ANT, SYMMYRMICA CHAMBERLINI, 
REDISCOVERED NEAR SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 
(HYMENOPTERA, FORMICIDAE)* * 
By Alfred Buschinger' and Andr^ Francoeur^ 
Introduction 
In a series of recent papers we investigated the social structures of 
Formicoxenus nitidulus, F. hirticornis, and Leptothorax provan- 
cheri (Buschinger und Winter 1976, Buschinger 1979, Buschinger, 
Francoeur and Fischer 1980). They are all so-called guest ants, small 
species living in independent colonies within the larger nests of their 
host species. Formicoxenus gains its food by soliciting it from the 
Formica hosts, or by stealing food when two Formica workers feed 
each other (Stager 1925, Buschinger 1976). L. provancheri are often 
seen licking the head and body of their Myrmica hosts; however, it 
remains uncertain how they really get their food. Our observations 
revealed that these guest ants had some interesting features in com- 
mon, such as a functional monogyny, a queen polymorphism with 
dealate and intermorphic females, and a tendency to mate within or 
on the upper surface of the host nest. The Formicoxenus species 
recognized up to now have wingless, workerlike males, whereas the 
L. provancheri male exhibits an ordinary winged shape. 
It was a challenging task, therefore, to search for Symmyrmica 
chamberlini Wheeler (1904), another guest ant with wingless males 
and living together with Manica mutica, in order to study its biology 
and to find out its relationship to the species mentioned above. We 
took the opportunity of visiting the type area of S. chamberlini in 
the vicinity of Salt Lake City, Utah, after the 9th Congress of lUSSl 
in Boulder, Colorado. We were able to rediscover this ant and to 
collect some new material which yielded additional support for an 
incorporation of Symmyrmica into Formicoxenus. 
'Fachbereich Biologic, Institut fur Zoologie, der Technischen Hochschule, Schnitts- 
pahnstr. 3, D 6100 Darmstadt, FRG 
^Departement des sciences fondamentales, Universite du Quebec Chicoutimi, Chi- 
coutimi, Quebec, Canada G7H 2B1 
* Manuscript received by the editor April 3, 1983. 
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