AUSTRALIAN HONEY-ANTS. 267 



Thorax long and slender, pronotum longer than the mesonotum, which 

 is longer than the epinotiim; epinotal declivity only about ^ as long 

 as the base. Petiole small, its node blunt, with a feeble longitudinal 

 impression on its summit, its anterior surface somewhat angulate 

 near the base in profile, straight above and shorter than the straight, 

 sloping posterior surface; ventral surface feebly convex behind. 

 Gaster elliptical in non-replete individuals. Femora and tibiae 

 distinctly compressed. 



Whole body, including the mandibles, subopaque, very finely and 

 densely shagreened; mandibles with a row of coarse punctures along 

 the apical margin. 



Whole surface appearing pruinose, because covered with extremely 

 fine, short, whitish pubescence. Hairs confined to mandibles and 

 clypeus, where they are very short and mostl}^ yellowish, and to the 

 venter, where they are much longer and black. Flexor surfaces of 

 tibiae with an irregular row of short black bristles. 



Black, with faint bluish or greenish reflections; head, antennae, 

 tarsi, trochanters, knees and tips of tibiae rufotestaceous; palpi black. 



N^ew South ]]'^ales: Blue Mts. (Beccari and E. D'Albertis) ; Sydney 

 (Lowne, L. M. D'Albertis) ; Katoomba, Blue Mts. (Wheeler) ; Jeno- 

 lan Caves, Blue Mts. (J. C. Wiburd) ; Mittagong (W. W. Froggatt). 



Queensland: Rockhampton (Froggatt); Peak Downs (Museum 

 Godeffroy); Mackay (G. Turner). 



This is the type of the genus. I have seen no specimens from 

 Queensland, and suspect that some of the records, like that of Turner, 

 may refer to L. varians var. ruficeps, which, owing to the great simi- 

 larity in color, is very easily mistaken for erythrocephalus. 



In his work on the ants of the Sicilian amber (1891) Emery describes 

 and figures from some Queensland specimens what he takes to be the 

 male of this species. A male received from Staudinger and Bang-Haas, 

 from Cooktown on the Cape York peninsula, agrees with Emery's 

 description but I hesitate to regard either it or the specimens described 

 by Emery as males of erythrocephalus, because there are at least two 

 other species in northern Queensland (varians and unicolor) to either 

 of which they may be assigned with equal probability. 



One small nest of L. erythrocephalus, which I found in the Kanimbla 

 Valley, near Katoomba, was in the ground under the edge of a boulder. 

 The gallery from the entrance descended only about four inches into 

 the soil and there enlarged into a chamber about five inches long, 

 three inches broad and an inch high. This contained about 60 

 workers with larvae. Only six of the workers were in the replete 

 condition. 



