Revision of Polyergus

Hello all:

I am actually working on the revision of Polyergus that some readers will know that I have been promising for years. At the moment, I am gathering the morphometric data for the western North American breviceps group. I will proceed next to the lucidus group, then to the Eurasian forms. These measuring marathons will be followed by statistical analysis, writing and rewriting and rewriting, some drawing and table preparation, and eventually, a manuscript worthy of publication.

I am also collaborating with others on genetic fingerprinting of various populations. So dear readers, if you encounter these beautiful ants, please collect Polyergus workers and a sample of alates, if available, into 90-95% ethanol. Also please, please throw in a few host Formica workers, too. Samples from almost anywhere will be helpful, as modern sampling thus far has been very localized.

Nice! Everyone who is motivated enough to schedule such a revision deserve to be helped!!
I will try on my own to look for these fasinating ants and inform other "ant lovers" from France to do the same. Some people I know, and Nicolas can confirmed, have some Polyergus on their own garden!
We'll need your complete adress to send you the samples.
I wish you good luck for the revision!

That is a great project. You can be sure to have some specimens if I found them. Unfortunately, that was not the case so far.
Would like me to take a look at the NCSU collection and tell you how much Polyergus they have and the different locations? I will probably go during the day, so I could do that at this point.

Thanks for the offers of specimens.
The address:

Dr. James C. Trager
Shaw Nature Reserve
Interstate-44 and U.S.-100
P.O. Box 38
Gray Summit MO 63039