If you have an exception hierarchy, throw ex can slice your exception, while throw won't. For example:

#include <iostream> 
#include <string> 

using namespace std; 

struct base 
{ 
  virtual string who() {return "base";} 
}; 

struct derived : public base 
{ 
  string who() {return "derived";} 
}; 

int main() { 
  try { 
    try { 
      throw derived(); // throws a 'derived'
    }  
    catch (base& ex)  
    { 
      throw ex; // slices 'derived' object to be a 'base' object
    } 
  } 
  catch (base& ex) 
  { 
    cout<<ex.who()<<endl; // prints 'base'
  } 
} 

Change throw ex to just throw, and you'll get an output of derived, which is what you probably expected to get.