Formica cunicularia

Smith, F., 1851, List of the specimens of British animals in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. - Hymenoptera Aculeata., London: British Museum : 9

FORMICA CUNICULARIA .

Formica cunicularia, Latr . Fourm. 151. Nyland. Adno. Mon. Form. Boreal. 913, 11. Foerster, Hym. Stud. Form. 26,9.

Female (length 4 lines). Antennae, face below them, the mandibles, thorax, legs and scale of the abdomen bright ferruginous; the disk of the thorax of a dark red-brown, or with three or four spots of that colour; the antennae are darker towards their apex the scale is very slightly notched; abdomen of an ashy black; at the base and beneath having a ferruginous tinge: the wings are hyaline, but slightly smoky towards their base; the nervures, are testaceous, the stigma brown.

Worker (length 2 - 23 / 4 lines). This sex is similarly coloured to the female, but altogether duller; and the thorax is more elongate and narrowed towards the metathorax; the abdominal scale is not notched, and the legs more elongate than in the female.

Male (length 4 lines). Black; the legs and tip of the abdomen of a pale reddish yellow; the scale is quadrate and deeply notched above; the wings hyaline, but smoky towards their base, the nervures testaceous, the stigma brown: abdomen elongate, about the same width as the thorax, and having a bright silky gloss. (All the sexes taken from the same nest.)

Note. - The male closely resembles that of Formica fusca , but distinguished by having the externo-medial nervure continued to the base of the wing; in fusca it becomes obsolete.