The Biology of Myrmoxenus Gordiagini Ruzsky a Slave-Making Ant (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

M’rmoxenus gordiagini was described by Ruzsky (1902) from material which he had collected in the Akmolinsk area in Soviet Russia, near the town of Koktschetaw. The ant was always found living together with a newly described host species, Leptothorax serviculus Ruzsky. The colonies inhabited narrow galleries between and underneath small stones in the rocky slopes of a hilly region, with some birch and spruce trees. Finzi (1924) described a subspecies, Myrmoxenus gordiagini menozzii, from the Yugoslavian peninsula of Istria. Only one male and one female were found within moss and soil at the foot of an oak tree, together with numerous females and workers of Leptothorax un[’asciatus (Latreille). Finzi therefore believed that his new subspecies was living with that host species. Finally, in 1925, Soudek established a new genus, M’rmetaerus, for a new species, microcellatus, that he had collected near Kotor in Dalmatia, Yugoslavia. Although he explicitly discussed the close relationship of M. microcellatus with Myrmoxenus, he described this ant as representing a new species and genus "as a provisional arrangement" (Soudek, 1925). M. microcellatus was found under a stone in a deciduous forest, in a mixed colony with Lepto-