MANN: ANTS OF THE BRITISH SOLOMON ISLANDS. 387 



very finely and densely punctate and striate. Appendages finely and densely 

 punctate. 



Antennae and tibiae pollinose, head and body clothed densely with fine, 

 short, silky, glistening silver pubescence. 



Color black throughout. 



Female (dealated). Length 9 mm. 



Ocelli very small. Thorax and epinotum slender, but much shorter than 

 in the worker. Otherwise similar to worker with the usual sexual modifica- 

 tions. 



Malaita: Interior near Gwountafu. 



Described from two workers and a female found in the ground near 

 our camp fire, at an altitude of about 2,200 feet. 



The elongate form and the arrangement of the spines are similar to 

 P. pJiyllophila F. Smith and related Oriental species included in 

 the subgenus Mynnhopla. However the margined thorax and epi- 

 notum do not permit including it in this subgenus and make the erec- 

 tion of Dolichorhachis necessary. 



120. PoLYRHACHis (Myrmhopla) wheeleri, sp. nov. 



Worker. Length 6.-6.5 mm. 



Head a little longer than broad, broadly rounded behind eyes; sides in front 

 of eyes slightly convex. Mandibles 5-dentate. Clypeus obtusely, though 

 distinctly carinate, with an anterior median lobe, separated from the rest by 



Fig. 58. — Polyrhachis (Myrmhopla) wheeleri Mann. Worker, 



a moderately impressed transverse suture, and strongly bidentate. Frontal 

 area indistinctly defined. Frontal carinae, short, extending to opposite 

 middle of eyes, strongly and angulately elevated behind antennal insertions. 

 Eyes strongly convex, situated at posterior third of sides. Antennae long, 

 thorax robust. Pronotum slightly convex above, not margined, with long, 



