Formica cinerea Mayr

47. Formica cinerea Mayr, 1853 Figs. 162,188-192.

Formica cinerea Mayr, 1853:280.

Worker: Brownish black often with genae and mesopleural articulations brownish red. Whole body closely covered with silvery pubescence. Erect hairs numerous on all dorsal surfaces, also on femora, on occiput and on gula. From above occipital hairs extend round the posterior margin of the head to the eyes. Length: 4.0-6.5 mm. Queen. As worker. Length: 8.0-9.0 mm.

Male. Colour and pilosity as queen; legs and external genitalia yellowish to brown. Length: 7.0-8.0 mm.

Distribution: Locally abundant on coastal sand of Jutland in Denmark; Skane, Blekinge, Halland in Sweden, also inland - Dalarna and Vastmanland; in Norway only recorded from Elverum in Hedmark (Collingwood, 1963); in Finland on coasts of Ostrobottnia, Nylandia and Karelia australis, inland also in Karelia borealis and Savonia borealis. - Absent from British Isles. - Range: Pyrenees to Urals, North Italy to Central Fennoscandia.

This species characteristically occurs in drift sand on coastal dunes in North Europe but also locally inland on coarse morainic drift. It is an aggressive species living largely by predation. Nests may be founded by single queens but where the species is populous, colonies are frequently polygynous and polycalic. Alatae occur in July. Its ecology and distribution in Finland are described by Kilpainen, Valkeila, Vesajoki and Wuorenrinna(I977).