Formica pratensoides GÖSSWALD, 1951

Seifert, Bernhard, 2021, A taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic members of the Formica rufa group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) - the famous mound-building red wood ants, Myrmecological News 31, pp. 133-179 : 160

Formica pratensoides GÖSSWALD, 1951

Formica minor ssp. pratensoides GÖSSWALD, 1951 [description, zoogeography]

This taxon was described from near Würzburg ( Germany): “Revierförsterei Irtenberg, Forstamt Waldbrunn”. GÖSSWALD (1951) reported a large, clearly demarcated black patch on promesonotum of the workers and gynes having 110 - 115% of the size of Formica rufa and a completely matt gaster surface. It becomes obvious from his lengthy treatise that GÖSSWALD (1951) studied a polygynous-polydomous colony of Formica pratensis . Such colony types up to true supercolonial conditions have been repeatedly observed in forests of the planar and colline zone of Germany ( SEIFERT 1992, 2018).