AUSTRALIAN HONEY-ANTS. 279 



very convex declivity. Petiole triangular in profile with straight 

 anterior and posterior surfaces meeting at somewhat less than a right 

 angle; summit of node with a distinct longitudinal impression. 

 Gaster elliptical, rather narrow. Legs very slender, tibife not com- 

 pressed. 



Subopaque, very finely shagreened; mandibles with a row^ of coarse 

 punctures along their apical border. 



Hairs on mandibles and clypeus very feebly developed, longer, 

 coarser and black on the venter; pubescence whitish, extremely short 

 and fine. 



Head, thorax and antennae, rufotestaceous; gaster, pronotum, 

 and in some specimens a spot on the mesonotuin black; legs black; 

 tarsi fulvous. 



Queensland: Rockhampton (Museum Godeffroy) ; 



This species is very closely related to pallens but difl^ers in its greater 

 size and the more elongate and posteriorly constricted head. I have 

 not seen specimens of the typical form but of the following varieties: 



16. Leptomyrmex varians var. rufipes Emery. 



Emery, Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. 39, 1S95, p. 352, y ; Forel, Rev. Suisse 

 Zool. 10, 1902, p. 473, ^ (replete) ; Froggatt, Agric. Gaz. N. S. W. 

 Sept. 1905, p. 23; Emery, Genera Insect. Fasc. 137, 1912, p. 17; 

 Boll. Lab. Zool. Gen. e Agrar. R. Scuola Sup. d'Agric. Portici 8, 1914, 

 p. 180. 



Worker. Differing from the typical form of the species in color. 

 The gaster and distal halves of the femora are black; the remainder 

 of the body, including the anus and a spot at the base of the first 

 gastric segment rufotestaceous. 



Queensland: Laidely, Brisbane (Podenzana) ; Mackay (G. Turner) ; 

 Darra, Toowong and Botanical Garden, Brisbane (Wheeler). 



Keiv South Wales: Gosford (F. Silvestri). 



According to Forel, Gilbert Turner discovered the repletes of this 

 variety at Mackay. I found two nests, both in the ground in dry 

 woods, one at Toowong, and the other at Darra, but was unfortunately 

 unable to excavate them. The one at Toowong was under the root of 

 a larg(; tree in very hard, stony soil, that at Darra under a large log 

 in which an extremely irritable colony of wasps {Icaria socialistica) 

 was nesting. When the log was turned over these insects compelled 

 Mr. Henry Hacker and myself to beat a hasty retreat. 



