Formica Linnaeus, 1758

Dlussky, G. M., Rasnitsyn, A. P. & Perfilieva, K. S., 2015, The Ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Bol’shaya Svetlovodnaya (Late Eocene of Sikhote-Alin, Russian Far East), Caucasian Entomological Bulletin 11 (1), pp. 131-152 : 137

Genus Formica Linnaeus, 1758

Type species Formica rufa Linnaeus, 1758 ; by subsequent designation by Curtis, 1839:752.

Diagnosis (for fossil imprints). Head of gyne and worker usually longer than wide, with rounded occipital angles. Anterior margin of clypeus rounded or angulate. Eyes situated above middle of head sides, gena of gynes and workers much longer than maximum eye diameter. Mandibles triangular, dentate in gynes and workers. Antennae 12-segmented in gynes and workers and 13-segmented in males. Scape protruding beyond posterior margin of head. Second to fifth joints of funiculus of gynes and workers 1.5–2 times as long as wide. Antennal insertion near posterior margin of clypeus. Hind coxae closely set. Forewing with closed cells 1+2r, 3r and mcu, free branches5RS and 4M leaving cell1+2r from common knot. 5RS and 4M curved approximately equally. Section 2-3RS often S-shaped. Icu> 1.45. Male and gyne size subequal.

Species included. Bolton’s online catalogue [ Bolton, 2015] gives 175 species and 25 subspecies of Formica distributed in the Palearctic and Nearctic, as well as 55 extinct species and 1 subspecies distributed in Eocene, Oligocene and Miocene. However, fossil species need a revision, for some of them well might be found synonyms and some other belonging elsewhere.