Formica piniphila SCHENCK, 1852

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 : 152

Formica piniphila SCHENCK, 1852

Formica piniphila SCHENCK, 1852 [description and zoogeography]

This taxon was described from Hessen-Nassau. Types were not available. SCHENCK (1852) reported for the worker “mesosoma always homogenously covered by setae, eyes bare, mesosoma with two small, pale blackish spots, the latter often missing” and for the gyne “scutellum and gaster brilliantly shiny.” As SCHENCK (1852) correctly described differential characters of Formica polyctena , Formica pratensis , and Formica truncorum and because no other Formica rufa group species are expectable for Hessen-Nassau, the synonymy with F. rufa is obvious.