Eurasia : subalpine meadows, steppe and forest-steppe areas from Western Europe to the Far East. In the northern part, the range covers Sweden, Finland, Estonia (in Russia before Karelia), and in the southern — Italy, Turkey, the Caucasus, Mongolia, China (in Russia south to southern Siberia and the south of the Far East) [2] [3] . Far Eastern and Siberian populations were previously considered a separate species Formica rufomaculata Ruzsky , 1895 [4] .
Length 4-6 mm (females and males are not larger than workers: 5-6 mm). The color of the working ants is two-tone (the chest is reddish-red, the head and abdomen are dark brown); head with a deep notch at the occipital margin, characteristic of all members of the subgenus Coptoformica . The mandibular palps are short; they consist of 5 or 6 segments. Eyes without hairs. The head and top of the breasts of females are shiny. The stalk between the chest and the abdomen consists of one segment of the petiol. The scale of the stalk expands upward. Small bulk anthills are built , as a rule, up to 20 cm high and 40 cm in diameter. Families are small and monogynous, consist of one uterus and several hundred working individuals (polygynous families are found in European populations). The mating season of winged females and males is observed from June to September. The formation of new colonies occurs in a socially parasitic way : young females penetrate the nests of other ants of the subgenus Serviformica . Trophobionts using the sweet aphid pad ( Aphididae ), collectors of small arthropods [2] [3] [5] .
By the presence of a deep notch at the occipital margin, it is included in the subgenus Coptoformica . It was first described in 1846 by the Finnish entomologist William Nyulander based on materials from Finland. In 2000, the taxon Formica exsecta var. rufomaculata Ruzsky , 1895 (see: Seifert , 2000) [2] , which was previously considered an independent species from Formica rufomaculata Ruzsky , 1895 [3] [6] [7] since 1964.
It is included in the Red Books of Germany (in the category of extinct species: Red List 0; extinct) and Switzerland (in the category of species close to a vulnerable position: Red List 3; threatened) [2] . It is included in the Red Book of the Chelyabinsk region [8] .
