468 



bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



posterior border broadly concave. Mandibles slender, their blades with 12- 

 14 unequal, triangular teeth. Cly]3eus slightly convex, its anterior border 

 very feebly concave. Antennae 7-jointed; basal dilation of scape narrowly 

 rounded at outer border, about a third as broad as long; first funicular joint 

 as long as the second and much thicker; all joints longer than broad, gradually 

 increasing in size to the terminal, which is a little shorter than the three pre- 

 ceding joints together. Scrobes broad and deep. Eyes small, situated at 

 middle of the margin that borders the scrobes. Pronotum longitudinally 

 impressed at middle. Promesonotal suture impressed but with continuous 

 sculpture. Mesoepinotal impi'ession distinct. Base of epinotum nearly flat 



in profile; spines stout and blunt at tip, longer 

 than their distance apart at base, broadly 

 lamellate basalty, the lamellae continuing as 

 margins to the declivity. Petiolar node from 

 above longer than broad, in profile as long as 

 high and longer than the peduncle; antero- 

 ventral tooth large, lamellate, and rouijded 

 at ti]). Postpetiole twice.as broad as petiole 

 and much broader than long, strongly longi- 

 tudinally impressed at middle and gibbous 

 posteriori}' on either side of impression. 



Opaque. Mandibles rugose basally. Head, 

 thorax, petiole, and postpetiole with very 

 coarse irregular costae, which are oblique on 

 the front, transverse on the occiput and longi- 

 tudinal on the thoracic dorsum. Base of first 

 gastric segment with irregular costae, the 

 rest strongly cribrate-punctate. 

 Body, antennae, and legs with abundant, coarse, semierect, flattened, clavate 

 hairs; body and antennae in addition to these with sparse, longer, erect, 

 clavate hairs. 



Dark ferruginous throughout. 



Viti Levu: Nadarivatu (Type-locality), Waiyanitu, Vanua Levu: 

 Suene. Ovalau. 



Described from workers taken from se\eral colonies. It nests 

 beneath stones or logs in the deep woods. The formicaries contain 

 few workers. They are difficult to discern on account of their neutral 

 color and the habit of remaining motionless when disturbed. 



Rhopaloihrix elegans is a very characteristic species related to 

 proccra Emery, from which it differs in the more pronounced occipital 

 lobes, the elongate antennal joints, the funicular joints are transverse 

 in proccra, and very markedly in its sculpture, and larger size. Type. 

 — M.C.Z. 8,711. 



Fig. 25. — Rhopalothrix (Rhopalo- 

 thrix) elegans Mann. Worker. 

 Front view of head. 



