S. B. Buckley on North American Formieidse. 347 



The following description of the " cutting ant," of Texas, is now 

 given, because when an attempt was made by the writer do describe it 

 in the proceedings of the Acad. Nat. Sciences of Philadelphia for 1860, 

 p. 233, he was in Texas, without a knowledge of Entomology, and 

 without books on the subject, consequently said description is very im- 

 perfect ; nor would it have ever been attempted had he not wished to 

 tell of the wonderful doings of this ant. 



62. (Ecodoma texana. 



Female. Length 0.62 inch. — Color reddish-brown; head triangu- 

 lar, small, occiput truncate, and upper margin nearly straignt, two- 

 spiued, 3 ocelli at top of occiput; eyes small, lateral, circular, and 

 about midway of the head, antennae inserted near the base of the cly- 

 peus, long, filiform, aud slightly enlarged toward the apical joint; man- 

 dibles large, triangular, browuish-black and finely toothed on the inner 

 margins, apical teeth long, curved inwards and acute; prothorax about 

 } wider than the occiput, raised and rounded above and in front, and 

 widest in the middle; mesothorax rounded above and subtruncate be- 

 hind, a black narrow band extending around its margins; nietathorax 

 below mesothorax, and truncated and has four short spines, petiole 

 short ; front node smallest, truncated in front, has lateral spines, its 

 upper surface scarcely raised above the enlarged petiole which connects 

 it with the posterior node, which is large, broad longitudinally, a uar- 

 row depressed band separating it from the first segment of the abdo- 

 men ; abdomen larger, broad-ovate, obtuse ; legs slender and rather 

 short ; anterior wings extend about six lines beyond the abdomen, 

 upper surface of head, thorax and abdomen thickly sprinkled with 

 hairs. 



31ale. Length 0.54 inch. — Head very small; eyes large, circular 

 and prominent, spines of metathorax wanting or rudimentary; abdo- 

 men ovate, wings extend about five lines beyond the abdomen ; other- 

 wise like the female. 



Worker major. Length 0.28 inch. — Color like the female. Head 

 large, cordate, deeply emarginate, posterior lobes rounded, a deep sinus 

 extends to near the vertex, dividing the head posteriorly into 2 lobes; 

 eyes small, circular and prominent; ocelli none; spines of the occiput 

 near its base ; prothorax about •> the width of the head and its upper 

 surface, 4-spined, the two front spines longest, and slightly inclined 

 forward ; mesothorax strangulated, upper surface of metathorax two- 

 spined and spines inclined back; nodes sub-quadrangular, rough and 

 warty above ; posterior node longest, abdomen about I the size of the 



