Wheeler, William Morton The Ants of Alaska Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology AT HARVARD COLLEGE. VOL. LX1". No. 2. THK ANTS OF ALASKA. BY \YlJ,UAM MoUTON WlIKKLKR. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.: PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM. I'.MT. REPORTS ON THE SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE EXPEDITION TO THE EAST- ERN TUOPICAL PACIFIC, IN CHARGE OF ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, BY THE U. S. FISH COMMISSION STEAMER "ALBATROSS," FROM OCTOBER, 1904, TO MARCH, 1905, LIEUTENANT COMMANDER L. M. GARRETT, U. S. X., COMMANDING, PUBLISHED OR IN PREPARATION: — A. AGASSIZ. V.3 General Report on the Expedition. A. AGASSIZ. I.i Three Letters to Geo. M. Bowers, U. S. Fish Com. A. AGASSIZ and H. L. CLAHK. The Echini. H. B. BIGELOW. XVI.* The Medusae. H. B. BIGELOW. XXIII.a The Sipho- nophores. H. B. BIGELOW. XXVI.=» The Cteno- P. BIGELOW. The Stomatopods. CARLGREN. The Actinaria. V. CHAMBERLIN. The Annelids. L. CLARK. The Holothurians. L. CLARK. The Starfishes. L. CLARK. The Ophiurans. F. CLARKE. VIII.8 The Hydroids. . R. COE. The Nemerteans. J. COLE. XIX.i* The Pycnogonida. . H. DALL. XIV." The Mollusks. R. EASTMAN. VIL' The Sharks- Teeth. CARMAN. XII.i? The Reptiles. . J. IIANSEN. The Cirripeds. . J. IIANSEN. XXVII." The Schizo- pods. HENSHAW The Insects. . E. HOYLE. The Cephalopods. . C. KENDALL and L. RADCLIFFE. \ \ \ . The Fishes. C A. KOFOID. III.* IX.« XX.» The Protozoa. C. A. KOFOID and J. R. MICHENER. XXII.=2 The Protozoa, i C. A. KOFOID and E. J. RIGDEN. XXIV.2' The Protozoa. P. K RUMBACH. The Sagittae. R. VON LENDENFELD. XXI."-' The Siliceous Sponges. R. VON LENDENFELD. XXI \. » Hcxactinellida. : G. W. MULLER. The Ostracods. JOHN MURRAY and G. V. LEE. XVII." The Bottom Specimens. MARY J. RATHBUN. X.'O The Crus- tacea Decapoda. HARRIET RICHARDSON. II.- The Isopods. W. E. RITTER. IV." The Tunicate. B. L. ROBINSON. The Plants. G. O. SARS. The Copepods. F. E. SCHULZE. XL" The Xeiiophyo- phoras. HARRIET R. SEARLE. XXVIII.=« Iso- pods. H. H. SIMROTH. Pteropods, Heteropods. ' E. C. STARKS. XIII." Atelaxia. TIL STUDER. The Alcyonaria. JH. THIELE. XV.is Bathysciadium. , T. W. VAUGHAN. VI." The Corals. : R. WOLTERECK. XVIII." The Am- phipods. 1 Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. XLVL, No. 4, April, 1905, 22 pp. 2 Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. XLVL, No. 6, July, 1905, 4 pp., 1 pi. ^ Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. XLVL, No. 9, September, 1905, 5 pp., 1 pi. < Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. XLVL, No. 13, January, 1906, 22 pp., 3 pis. M.-rn. M . C. Z., Vol. XXXIII., January, 1906, 90 pp., 96 pis. " Bull. \1 . C. /., Vol. L., No. 3, August, 1906, 14 pp., 10 pis. 7 Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. L., No. 4, November, 1906, 26 pp., 4 pis. * Mom. M. C. Z., Vol. XXXV., No. 1, February, 1907, 20 pp., 15 pis. » Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. L., No. 6, February, 1907, 48 pp., 18 pis. in Mem. M. C. Z., Vol. X \ \ \ , \o. L'. Xu-usl, 19(17, 56 pp., 9 pis. "Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LI., No. ii, November, 1907, 22 pp., 1 pi. 12 Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIL, No. 1, June, 1'JOs, It pp., 1 pi. " Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIL. No. 2, July, 1908, 8 pp., 5 pis. " Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. XLIIL, No. 6, October, 1908, 285 pp., 22 pis. i* Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIL, No. 5, October, 1908, 11 pp., 2 pis. » Mem. M. C. /., Vol. XXXVII. , February, 1909, 243 pp., 48 pis. » Mem. M. C. Z., Vol. XXXVIII., No. 1, June, 1909, 172 pp., 5 pis., 3 maps. i" Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIL, No. 9, June, 1909, 26 pp., 8 pis. i» Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIL, No. 11, August, 1909, 10 pp., 3 pis. =o Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIL, No. 13, September, 1909, 48 pp., 4 pis. 21 Mem. M. C. Z., Vol. XLL, August, September, 1910, 323 pp.. 56 pis. ** Bull M. C. Z., Vol. LIV., No. 7, August, 1911, 38 pp. =s Mem. M. C. Z., Vol. XXXVIII., No. 2, December, 1911, 232 pp., 32 pis. »« Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIV., No. 10, February. 1912, 16 pp., 2 pis. * Mem. M. C. Z., Vol. XXXV., No. 3, April, 1912, 98 pp., 8 pis. » Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LIV, No. 12, April, 1912, 38 pp., 2 pis. * Mem. M. C. Z., Vol. XXXV., No. 4, July, 1912, 124 pp., 12 pis. 3" Bull. M. C. Z., Vol. LVIIL, No. 8, August, 1914, 14 pp. M Mem. M. C. Z., Vol. XLII., June, 1915, 397 pp., 109 pis. Bulletin of the Museum, of Comparative Zoology AT HARVARD COLLEGE. VOL. LXI. No. 2. THE ANTS OF ALASKA. BY WILLIAM MORTON WHEELEK. CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.: PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM. MARCH, 1917. M r? No. 2.— The Ants of Alaska. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE ENTOMOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, NO. 126. BY WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. OUR knowledge of the Formicidae of Alaska has been of very slow growth, probably because most of the collectors who have ventured into that extensive region have found ants too scarce and inconspicu- ous to merit serious attention. In 1899 Prof. Trevor Kincaid, while accompanying the Harriman Alaska Expedition, secured a number of specimens of five species which were recorded by Pergande (Proc. Wash. acad. sci., 1900, 2, p. 519-521) as Formica neorufibarbis Emery, Lasius niger Linne subsp. sitkaensis Pergande, Leptothorax yankee Emery var. kincaidi Pergande, Myrmica sabuleti Meinert var. lobifrons Pergande and Myrmica sulcinodoides Emery. Three of these were new to science, but unfortunately Pergande's descriptions of them are inadequate and puzzling, and although the types (No. 5277-5279) were cited as being in the U. S. N. M., Mr. S. A. Rohwer, after careful search has been unable to find them, and I have failed to find any cotypes in Pergande's private collection, which was acquired by the Museum after his death. Within recent years I have recorded Myr- mica brevinodis Emery var. alaskensis Wheeler, Formica fusca Linne var. gelida Wheeler and Camponotus herculeanus Linne var. whymperi Forel from Alaska. During the summer of 1916 Mr. J. A. Kusche of Eldridge, California, kindly collected a considerable number of ants for me in several Alaskan localities and in the adjacent Yukon territory of British America. Among the material I find three forms not hitherto recorded from these regions, so that the total known to date is twelve. They represent, however, only seven species: Myr- mica brevinodis, M. scabrinodis, Leptothorax acervorum, Lasius niger, Formica sanguinea, F. fusca, and Camponotus herculeanus, all well- known from the boreal portions of Europe and Asia, except Myrmica brevinodis, which might, in fact, be regarded as a subspecies of the Eurasian M. sulcinodis. Four of the varieties seem to be peculiar to Alaska, but all the other forms range widely through British America and southward into the United States along the higher slopes of the Sierra-Cascade and Rocky Mountains. The specimens collected by 16 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. Mr. Kusche at Fort Yukon, Nulato, and Rampart (64°-67° N. L.) are of unusual interest, because, with the single exception of the specimens of Leptothorax kincaidi taken by Mr. F. H. Whitney on the Upper Kugarok River, near Nome, and recorded in my paper on the mountain ants of western North America (Proc. Amer. acad. sci., 1917, 62, p. 512), no American ants had previously been found so far north. Fort Yukon, the remotest of the localities, is, in fact, situated on the Arctic Circle, which, I believe, may safely be taken as the extreme northern limit of our ant fauna. Owing to the important bearing of all the elements of the Alaskan biota on questions of geo- graphical distribution and on the question of a former Alaskan-Siberian land-bridge in particular, it seems advisable to publish a brief anno- tated list of the known Alaskan Formicidae together with a record of the various localities in which they were collected. 1. MYRMICA BREVINODIS Emery var. SULCINODOIDES Emery. Pergande records this form from Sitka and says that the palest specimens in his series agreed exactly with those he saw from Hill City, South Dakota. The specimen from Homer, Alaska (A. Mehner) referred by me to the var. frigida Forel (Bull. Wise. nat. hist, soc., 1907, 5, p. 78) may be more properly referred to suldnodoides. Indeed, I doubt whether frigida can be maintained as a distinct variety. Forel's var. whymperi is also, in my opinion, a synonym of suldno- doides Emery. The latter is known from higher elevations, up to 11,000 feet, in the Rockies of British Columbia, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico and in the Sierra Nevada. In the paper cited above I called attention to the peculiar greenish yellow color of the larvae of this ant and their oily luster. 2. MYRMICA BREVINODIS var. ALASKENSIS Wheeler. Recently described from workers taken at Seward, on the Kenai Peninsula by Mr. F. H. Whitney (Proc. Amer. acad. sci., 1917, 52, p. 503) . Numerous specimens from two colonies found by Mr. Kusche at Fort Yukon and in the Pynaw Mts., near Rampart, also belong to this variety. WHEELER: THE ANTS OF ALASKA. 17 3. MYRMICA BREVINODIS var. KUSCHEI, var. nov. Worker. Length 3-3.5 mm. Very similar in sculpture, pilosity, and color to the var. alaskensis but averaging somewhat smaller, with shorter and straight, instead of curved, epinotal spines, the antennal scapes very distinctly broader and flatter at the base and with the naiddorsal portion of the post- petiole smooth and shining. The clypeus has only about eight coarse longitudinal rugae as in alaskensis. Female (deflated). Length 5.5 mm. Much darker than the worker, the head, thorax, petiole, postpetiole, and gaster being castaneous, the mandibles, antennae, and legs brownish yellow. Rugae on the body coarse, those on the pronotum very coarse and vermiculate, on the remainder of the thorax longi- tudinal, finer on the pleurae than on the mesonotum and scutellum. Postpetiole above without a smooth area, sharply, regularly, and con- centrically rugose, the rugae transverse at the posterior border. Sur- face of body distinctly more shining than in the worker; pilosity very similar. Described from a female and twenty-three workers taken by Mr. Kusche from a single colony at Ketchikan. The worker and female of this variety are readily distinguished from the corresponding phases of the other described forms of brevinodis by the peculiar sculpture of the dorsal surface of the postpetiole, the sculpture in the worker recalling that of 'Myrmica scabrinodis var. detritinodis Emery, while the postpetiolar rugae in the females of the other forms are not regular and concentric but longitudinal and irregular or interrupted. 4. MYRMICA SCABRINODIS Nylander subsp. LOBICORNIS Nyl. var. LOBIFRONS Pergande. Pergande described this form as M. sabvleti var. lobifrons but his description is so brief as to apply to almost any small Myrmica. He says merely that it measures 3 mm. and is dark brown or black, with the "mandibles, antennae, legs, sides of the thorax and of the abdo- men more or less distinctly yellowish brown, reddish brown or almost black," and adds that it is "closely related to a form .of Myrmica sabuleti inhabiting South Dakota, but is somewhat larger and much 18 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. darker, with the sculpturing of the head and thorax coarser and the hairs stouter and shorter." He cites no locality for the types (No. 5279, U. S. N. M.), which seem to be lost. As sabuleti is itself now regarded as merely a variety of scabrinodis, it is clear that lobifrons must be referred to some other form. I conjecture that it is a variety of lobicornis, which I have recently shown (Proc. Amer. acad. sci., 1917, 52, p. 504) to be actually represented in America by Forel's var. glacialis of the Rocky Mts. and Sierra Nevada. Perhaps glacialis is merely a synonym of lobifrons, but this can be determined only if Pergande's types are found or by further collecting in Alaska. 5. LEPTOTHORAX ACERVORUM Nylander subsp. CANADENSIS Pro- vancher var. KINCAIDI Pergande. This variety was described as L, yankee Emery var. kincaidi from a female and twelve workers taken by Professor Kincaid at Metlakahtla. I have recorded it from the Upper Kugarok River, near Nome (65° N. L.) where it was taken by Mr. F. H. Whitney. Numerous workers taken by Mr. Kusche at Skagway and White Pass agree even more closely with Pergande's description, as they are somewhat smaller and lack the crescentic black spot on the pronotum. Perhaps the more northern specimens should be regarded as a distinct variety. 6. LASIUS NIGER Linne var. SITKAENSIS Pergande. This form, not represented among the specimens collected by Mr. Kusche, was described by Pergande as a subspecies of L. niger from twenty-five workers taken at Sitka. As stated in my recent paper on the mountain ants, I believe it to be identical with a form which I have found to be common throughout the Canadian zone. Pergande mentions its similarity to Lasius svhniger of Maine (recte neoniger Emery). If I am right in my identification of the Alaskan form it is merely a variety and not a subspecies of the typical Eurasian niger. 7. FORMICA SANGUINEA Latreille subsp. SUBNUDA Emery. Mr. Kusche secured many workers of this subspecies from several colonies at Skagway and White Pass, Alaska and White Horse, Yukon. WHEELER: THE ANTS OF ALASKA. 19 All agree with the typical form of the subspecies from the Canadian zone of southern British America and the United States in lacking erect hairs on the thorax and in having only a very few inconspicuous hairs on the dorsal surface of the head. The slaves in several of the colonies were workers of F. fusca var. gelida and var. neorufibarbis. Some of the colonies contained a few small subnuda pseudogynes. If Wasmann's and Muckermann's contention is correct, that pseudogynes are produced only as the result of the presence of staphylinid beetles of the tribe Lomechusini (species of Xenodusa in North America) in the sanguined nests, we must suppose that these beetles range as far north as Alaska. This has not been demonstrated, so that my suggestion that pseudogynes may also be produced by other causes, is still worthy of consideration, especially as Mr. Horace Donisthorpe writes me that he is also of the opinion that pseudogynes occasionally make their appearance in British sanguined colonies which have never been infested by lomechusine parasites. 8. FORMICA FUSCA Linne. A number of workers taken by Mr. Kusche at Fort Yukon belong to the typical black form of this species, which is widely distributed, not only in the Canadian zone of North America, as I have shown in previous articles (Bull. M. C. Z., 1913, 53, p. 496; Proc. Amer. acad. sci., 1917, 52, p. 545) but also throughout boreal Eurasia as far north as latitude 65°. 9. FORMICA FUSCA var. MARCIDA Wheeler. I refer to this variety a dealated female and thirty-six workers taken by Mr. Kusche from a single colony at White Horse, Yukon, and a series of workers which he took at Fort Yukon, Alaska. The former are fully as large as the typical fusca and have the mandibles, antennae, and legs of an even paler and purer brownish yellow color than in the types which were taken in the Selkirk Mts. of British Columbia, the latter are much more like the types in size and color. This variety has also been taken in Alberta, Manitoba, Washington, and California but always in an alpine environment. 20 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 10. FORMICA FUSCA var. NEORUFIBARBIS Emery. Under the name F. neorufibarbis Pergande included both this and the following variety. I believe that only his specimens from Met- lakahtla, which he calls the palest form, belong to neorufibarbis, those from Sitka and Kadiak being referable to the var. gelida. Mr. Kusche secured several series of workers at Skagway and Ketchikan, Alaska and White Horse, Yukon. The large individuals have the thorax, petiole, and legs uniformly red, without traces of infuscation and are exactly like those taken by myself during the summer of 1915 in the Canadian Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. 11. FORMICA FUSCA var. GELIDA Wheeler. The study of a long series of workers and dealated females taken by Mr. Kusche at Skagway, Nulato, Ketchikan, and in the Pynaw Mts., near Rampart, Alaska, and at White Horse, Yukon, and of a few workers from Seward (F. H. Whitney) and Kasiloff Lake, on the Kenai Peninsula, shows that this variety cannot be satisfactorily dis- tinguished from neorufibarbis except by the color of the larger workers, which in gelida have the legs and thorax more or less and often deeply infuscated. Darker specimens seem to pass over into the typical fusca, while immature specimens are difficult to distinguish from the var. marcida. 12. CAMPONOTUS HERCULEANUS Linne var. WHYMPERI Forel. This variety is not only widely distributed through the Canadian and Hudsonian zones of North America, but is said to occur also in Siberia. Mr. Kusche obtained numerous worker and female speci- mens from several colonies at Fort Yukon, Skagway, and Nulato, Alaska and White Horse, Yukon. I have also seen specimens from Kasiloff Lake, on the Kenai Peninsula (Berlin Museum) and Koyukuk (W. J. Peters). The variety differs from the typical herculeanus merely in the slightly longer and more abundant, subappressed hairs on the tibiae. As I find this character to be inconstant on comparison of American- and European specimens, whymperi would seem to be an insignificant if not a spurious variety. WHEELER: THE ANTS OF ALASKA. 21 Postscript.— Just after correcting the first proof of this paper Mr. S. A. Rohwer informed me that he had succeeded in finding in the U. S. N. M. the types of the varieties of ants described by Pergande from Alaska and that he was sending me paratypes of Lasius sitkaen- sis, Myrmica lobifrons, and Leptothorax kincaidi and a couple of work- ers identified by Pergande as belonging to Myrmica sulcinodoides. The conclusions I have reached from a study of the specimens may be briefly stated: — (1). Myrmica brevinodis var. sulcinodoides Emery. — The speci- mens from Sitka referred by Pergande to this variety differ somewhat in color from the form I regard as typical sulcinodoides, as they have the head and gaster dark brown, instead of black, and the remainder of the body and appendages yellowish brown instead of deep red. I should be inclined to refer them to the var. subalpina Wheeler, but as Pergande refers to differences of color in his series, the specimens before me may be somewhat immature. (4). Myrmica scabrinodis subsp. lobicornis var. lobifrons Per- gande.— The types and paratypes are from Metlakahtla and the two of the latter received from Mr. Rohwer belong to different species which were not distinguished by Pergande. One is identical with M. scabrinodis lobicornis var. glacialis Forel as I find by comparison with a cotype from Vermillion Pass, Alberta, received from Professor Forel many years ago. The var. glacialis Forel therefore becomes a synonym of lobifrons Pergande. The other specimen belongs to Myrmica brevinodis and agrees perfectly with the cotypes of the var. kuschei described above. That Pergande really based his variety on a specimen with the antennal scape toothed at the base, is shown by his attaching the form to Myrmica sabuleti. (5). Leptothorax acervorum subsp. canadensis var. kincaidi Per- gande. Two worker paratypes from Metlakahtla agree closely with the specimens recorded above from Skagway and White Pass in size, form, and sculpture, but the latter have the light portions of the body and appendages paler and more reddish and there are no traces of infuscation on the thoracic dorsum and the summits of the petiolar and postpetiolar nodes. The Pergande specimens also have the legs without the short, erect or suberect hairs which are clearly visible in the specimens taken by Mr. Kusche. The latter, therefore, are more like the typical canadensis. (6). Lasius niger var. sitkaensis Pergande. — The interpretation of this variety given in my recent paper, "The mountain ants of western North America" (Proc. Amer. acad. sci. 1917, 52, p. 524), 22 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. is shown by a study of two paratypes to be correct. The paratypes are somewhat larger and darker than most of the specimens in my collection from boreal portions of the United States and British America, but series from Flathead Lake, Montana and Pullman, Washington are almost identical in size and coloration with the para- types from Sitka. Smaller and darker specimens grade into the var. neoniger Emery. The following Publications of the Museum of Comparative Zoology are in preparation: — LOUIS CABOT. Immature State of the Odonata, Part IV. E. L. MARK. Studies on Lepidosteus, continued. E. L. MARK. On Arachnactis. H. L. CLARK. The "Albatross" Hawaiian Echini. Reports on the Results of Dredging Operations in 1877, 1878, 1879, and 1880, in charge of ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, by the U. S. Coast Survey Steamer "Blake," as follows: — A. MILNE EDWARDS and E. L. BOUVIER. The Crustacea of the "Blake." A. E. VERRILL. The Alcyonaria of the " Blake." Reports on the Results of the Expedition of 1891 of the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer " Alba- tross," Lieutenant Commander Z. L. TANNER, U. S. N., Commanding, in charge of ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, as follows:— r K. BRANDT. The Sagittae. W. A. HERDMAN. The Ascidians. K. BRANDT. The Thalassicolae. S. J. HICKSON. The Antipathids. O. CARLGREN. The Actinarians. E. L. MARK. Branchiocerianthns. R. V. CHAMBERLIN. The Annelids. JOHN MURRAY. The Bottom Speci- W. R. COE. The Nemerteans. mens. REINHARD DOHRN. The Eyes of Deep- P. SCHIEMENZ. The Pteropods and Sea Crustacea. Heteropods. H. J. HANSEN. The Cirripeds. THEO. STUDER. The Alcyonarbns. H. J. HANSEN. The Schizopods. - The Salpidae and Doliolidac. HAROLD HEATH. Solenogaster. H. B. WARD. The Sipunculids. Reports on the Scientific Results of the Expedition to the Tropical Pacific, in charge of ALEXANDER AGASSI/:, on the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer "Albatross," from August, 1899, to March, 1900, Commander Jefferson F. Moser, U. S. N., Commanding, as follows: — R. V. CHAMBERLIN. The Annelids. MARY J. RATHBUN. The Crustacea H. L. CLARK. The Holothurians. Decapoda. IT T ^i»i>i- TU n u- G. O. SARS. The Copepods. H. I, CLARK. The Oph.urans. L STEJNEGER The Reptiles. C. H. TOWNSEND. The Momin.-ils. - The Coralliferous Limestones. nirdS) and Fishe9. S. HENSHAW. The Insects. T. W. VAUGHAN. The Corals, Recent G. W. MtiLLER. The Ostracods. and Fossil. MUSEU DATE DUE There have 1: Vols. LVIII. to Yols. XXXVI. tc Vols. LV., XXXV., XXX now in course of The Bn.LKTr original work by on by students a History, and of W tious and Explon The following ] lie-ports on the Hesu Alexander Agas Commander C. I . S. N., Comm Reports on tlie Rosul Steamer "Albati i nanding, in chin Reports on the Scienl charge of Alexai •'Albatross," froi Moser, C. S. N., Jtcports on the Seien Pacific, in charge Steamer ". \lbat mander I.. M. (la Contributions from the Contributions from the These |inlilirttini_ , „. ~m nuniDers at irregular intervals. Kaeh number of the Bulletin and of the Memoirs is sold sepanitely. A price list of the publications of the Museum will be sent on appli- cation to the Director of the Museum of Comparative /oology, Cambridge, Mass. LIBRARV FACILITY