128 
Psyche 
[September 
Manni may be following Gloger’s rule, tending to darken 
in a cooler, moister climate. 
Formica obtusopilosa Emery 
Formica obtusopilosa Emery, 1893, Zool. Jahrb. Syst., 7 : 
648-649; worker. Type locality: New Mexico. 
Formica munda var. alticola Wheeler, 1917, Proc. Amer. 
Acad. Arts Sci. Boston, 52 ; 534 ; worker. Type locality : 
Jefferson Co., Colo., 9500 feet. New Synonymy. 
Formica obtusopilosa alticola Creighton, 1950, Bull. Mus. 
Comp. Zool. Harv., 104: 466. 
Wheeler’s variety alticola was based on workers differ- 
ing from typical obtusopilosa (= munda ) only by a darker 
body color, a character of demonstrably little taxonomic 
value in other “sanguinea group” members. Creighton 
retained alticola because of the possibility that it might 
represent a geographic altitudinal variant. We are in- 
clined to discount even this possibility now, in view of the 
fact that a collection of workers as dark as the alticola 
types has recently been made in scrub desert at 6000 
feet near Junction, Piute Co., Utah (E. O. Wilson). The 
position of obtusopilosa as to species group is at present 
very uncertain, and may not be settled until males are 
studied. 
Formica perpilosa Wheeler (figs. 4, 6) 
Formica fusca subpolita var. perpilosa Wheeler, 1907, Mem. 
Revist. Soc. Ant. Alzate, 17 : 141 ; worker. Type 
locality: Canyon City, Colo. 
Formica perpilosa Wheeler, 1913, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 
Harv., 53: 421. 
Acknowledgements 
After the first draft of this paper had been prepared, 
we were privileged to examine a near-finished manuscript 
by Dr. W. F. Buren dealing broadly with the subject of 
group classification within the genus Formica. The cor- 
respondence between Buren’s and our ideas on this subject 
are frequently close and detailed (within the scope of 
