WHEELER, NORTH AMERICAN ANTS 327 



Surface subopaque, very densely and finely shagreened, gaster shining. 



Hairs pale yellow, abundant, shorter than in the minor worker. Cheeks 

 with a few erect hairs. Antennal scapes naked, legs with minute oblique hairs. 



Dark brown; mandibles, clypeus, antennae and gaster black; pleurae and 

 legs light brown ; genitalia, funiculi, tarsi and articulations of legs and thorax 

 yellowish. Wings dull hyaline, with pale yellow veins and stigma. 



Described from ten workers, two females and a single male, taken by 

 Mr. J. D. Mitchell at Harlington, Cameron County, Texas, and a single 

 worker taken by the same collector at Brownsville, Texas. 



I have described this form as a subspecies, although its exact status is 

 doubtful, owing to the extreme variability of the species, which is in 

 urgent need of revision. The same form, which I took some years ago at 

 Cuernavaca, was identified by Professor Forel as "C. abdominalis, new 

 subspecies between esuriens F. Smith and mediopallidus Forel." I have 

 since received it also from Juanacatlan, Mexico (J. F. McClendon). 

 Other specimens from Tuxpan, sent by the same collector, have the head 

 of the major and minor worker yellowish red like the thorax and legs, 

 and numerous specimens collected at Esquinapa by Mr. J. H. Batty and 

 at Guadalajara by Mr. McClendon have paler heads and no hairs on the 

 sides of the head. These therefore represent a transition to floridanus. 

 All the Mexican specimens are larger than the Texan. As Texas is at 

 the extreme edge of the northern range of the species, we may suppose that 

 this smaller average stature of transvectus is a sign of depauperation. 



III. Herculeamis Group 

 2.J. Camponotus laevigatas F. Smith 



Formica Iwvigata F. Smith, Catalog. Hymenop. Brit. Mus., VI. p. .55, No. 197. 

 ^ 9 , 1858 ; LoED, Natur. in Vancouver I. and Brit. Col., II, p. 341, 1866. 



Camponotus Icevir/atiis Mayr, Verb. Zool. hot. Ges. Wien, XXXVI. p. 420. 

 ^ $ . 1886 ; Emery, Zool. Jahrb. Abth. f. Syst, VII, p. 671, 1893. 



G. levigattis Dalla Torre. Catalog. Hymen., VII. p. 2.38, 1893. 



Worker major. Length, 10-13 mm.; head, 3.4 x 3.4 mm.; scape, 2.7 mm.; 

 hind tibia, 3.2 mm. 



Head as broad as long, somewhat broader behind than in front, with very 

 round, convex sides and posterior corners and scarcely excised posterior 

 border. Eyes small, flat. ^Mandibles convex, 5-toothed. Clypeus short, evenly 

 convex, without a carina, its anterior border not produced, with a shallow, 

 rounded median excision and a slightly deeper and more angular excision on 

 each side. Frontal area obsolete, frontal groove distinct. Antenna^ with short 

 scapes, not reaching beyond the posterior corners of the head, neither flattened 

 nor dilated at the base, distinctly enlarged at the tips. Thorax robust and 

 rather high, narrower than the head in front, laterally compressed behind, 



