Two ant species reported from Poland, Myrmica salina RUZSKY and M. lacustris RUZSKY, are renamed to M. slovaca SADIL and M. deplanata EMERY, respectively, according to a recent taxonomic reassessment by RADCHENKO & ELMES (2009).
Two cases of the existence of permanently mixed colonies of Formica polyctena FOERST. + F. rufa L. were discovered and blometrically proved. They came into being thanks to secondary allometrosis. The data are from the Gorce Mts. (the Western Carpathians), collected there from 1987 to 1990.
There are reported cases of spontaneous changes in species affiliation of colonies within the Formica rufa group (F. rufa L.→ F. polyctena FOERST.) resulting from the adoption of foreign queens by orphaned workers. Thus it is shown that mixed colonies of these species can function temporarily, and this widens the knowledge about the ways of colony founding by their queens. The data were collected in the Gorce Mts. (the Western Carpathians) from 1985 to 1990.
About 230,000 pupae of Formica polyctena FOERST. workers were introduced into a monocalic colony of F. sanguinea Latr. The result was a mixed colony consisting up to 96% of slaves of the non-typical species. The reactions of F. sanguinea to this situation, the development of the mixed colony, division of labour within the colony and relations with a nearby (artificially founded) colony of F. polyctena were investigated. The experiment was carried out in Gorce (the Western Beskidy Mts.) in 1987.
Among samples from 42 colonies of red wood ants that were analysed biometrically 2 were found to represent interspecific hybrids of Formica polyctena FOERST. x F. rufa L. 3 phenotypes (polyctena-like, intermediate, rufa-like) were distinguished in both colonies; their quantitative proportion was almost identical, with predominance of the intermediate forms. The studies were conducted in the Gorce Mts. (the Western Carpathians) from 1985 to 1990.