382 



bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



116. PoLYRHACHis (Charyomyrma) kaipi, sp. nov. 



Worker. Length 5 mm. 



Head a little longer than broad, sides convex, posterior border broadly 

 rounded. Mandibles with four large teeth. Clypeus carinate; anterior 

 border lobed and concave at middle. Frontal carinae short, the anterior two 

 thirds strongly laminate. Eyes moderately conve.x; situated at posterior 

 thirds of sides. Pronotum twice as broad as long; disc feebly convex; sides 

 and anterior border, except at middle, broadly lamellate, and moderately ele- 

 vated, humeral spines triangular and acute. Promesonotal suture narrowly 



impressed. Mesonotum broader than long, broad- 

 est in front, sides lamellate and elevated similar 

 to but not as broadly as on pronotum. Base of 

 epinotum lower than mesonotum and distinct from 

 it, though the suture is feebly impressed; surface 

 fiat, twice as broad as long, acutely margined at 

 sides; broadly rounding into the flattened decliv- 

 ous portion which, in profile, is three times as long 

 as base; spines about as long as their distance 

 from base to promesonotal suture; thick basaUy 

 and becoming slender apically, slightly curved 

 downward, directed backward and moderately 

 divergent. Petiole narrowly rounded above, the 

 spine slender, about as long as those of epinotum 

 and encircling base of gaster. Gaster short and 

 ovate. 



Strongly shining. Mandibles with regular, dense 

 rather coarse striae. Clypeus with irregular, 

 broad punctures, some of them confluent. Head 

 striate, the striae strong and longitudinal on 

 sides and cheeks, transversely arcuate above and 

 obsolete on the median portion of vertex and 

 occiput; striae of front finer and very irregular; 

 vertex with coarse, piligerous punctures. Thorax and abdomen not striate, 

 but with widely separated, foveolate punctures, similar to those on vertex. 



Epinotum and posterior surface of petiole with a thin mat of long, silky, 

 semirecumbent hairs, and long, erect pile, the remainder with erect, very long, 

 fine, and rather abundant pilosity, shortest on the head and appendages, but 

 lacking the mat of shorter semirecumbent hairs. 

 Black; appendages dark reddish brown. 

 Pilosity yellowish. 



Fig. 62. — Polyrhachis (Char- 

 yomyrma) kaipi Mann. 

 Worker. Thorax and 

 petiole from above. 



Malaita: Auki. 



