Myrmica rugulosa

Identification
Pale reddish yellow with dilute sculpture. Head distinctly longer than broad; petiole narrowly rectangular from above, simply angled in side view with very short truncate dorsal area. Antennal scapes sharply but evenly bent near base, without trace of an angular projection or process. Frontal triangle mostly smooth but partly striate at apex in Fennoscandian samples. Head Index: 80.2; Frons Index: 52.7; Frontal Laminae Index: 95.4. Length: 3.0-4.3 mm. (Collingwood 1979)

Distribution
Central Europe from Pyrenees to Siberia and Italy to Central Sweden (Collingwood 1979).

This taxon was described from Finland. It is also found in Sweden.

Biology
Collingwood (1979) - This is a small slender species, in Scandinavia found locally nesting in lowland sandy heath or open pasture frequently near the coast, but more generally distributed in Europe ascending to 1000 m in the Central Pyrenees. The nests are deep in the ground with circular crater like openings to the outside. The species is polygynous and a single colony may contain many thousands of workers. These tend to forage in files unlike most other Myrmica species which forage singly.

Nomenclature

 *  rugulosa. Myrmica rugulosa Nylander, 1849: 32 (w.q.) FINLAND. Mayr, 1855: 405 (m.); Lomnicki, 1924: 817 (gynandromorph). Subspecies of rubra: Forel, 1874: 77; Emery & Forel, 1879: 40; of scabrinodis: Forel, 1892i: 315; Ruzsky, 1905b: 690; Emery, 1908a: 177; Emery, 1916b: 120. Status as species: André, 1883a: 317; Ruzsky, 1902d: 30; Bondroit, 1918: 100; Finzi, 1926: 91; Karavaiev, 1929b: 203; Holgersen, 1940: 185; Boven, 1947: 175; Bernard, 1967: 115; Kutter, 1977c: 68; Arnol'di & Dlussky, 1978: 532; Collingwood, 1979: 54; Seifert, 1988b: 11; Atanassov & Dlussky, 1992: 89. Senior synonym of clandestina: Mayr, 1855: 405; of sulcinodorugulosa: Radchenko, 1994e: 75. See also: Radchenko, 2007: 28; Radchenko & Elmes, 2010: 244.
 * clandestina. Myrmica clandestina Foerster, 1850a: 63 (w.) GERMANY. Schenck, 1852: 85 (q.m.). Junior synonym of rugulosa: Mayr, 1855: 405.
 * sulcinodorugulosa. Myrmica rugulosa var. sulcinodorugulosa Nasonov, 1889: 35 (w.) LATVIA, ESTONIA, RUSSIA. Junior synonym of rugulosa: Radchenko, 1994e: 75.