220 FORMICID.T'. 



Geuus PHIDOLE. 



Formica, pt., Fabr. Ent. Si/sl. ii (1793), p. 301. 



Atta, pt., Si/kes, Tra7is. Ent. 8oc. i (1835), p. 103, ^ , pi. 13, fig. ± 



Pheidole, Wcstw. A. M. N. H. vi (1841), p. 87. 



Type, P. pvovidens, Sykes, from India*. 



Kunije. Both hemispheres. 



%. Head always in appearance somewliat disproportionately 

 large as compared with the hody ; occiput with a medial, more or 

 less deep emargination dividing the head posteriorly almost into 

 two lobes; mandibles strong, broad, triangular, with or without 

 teeth along the masticatory margin ; clyjieus narrow, produced 

 medially back between the bases oi the antennae, in a lew species 

 produced a little anteriorly also, the anterior border sometimes 

 eniarginate in the middle; frontal area small, depressed; antennal 

 carinas very often as long as the scape, bordering on one side a 

 groove into which the scape and flagellum fold up ; antenna? 12- 

 jointed, the club of the flagellum composed of the apical three 

 joints (in two Indian species and some American species of the 

 apical four joints, Ceratojjhidole) : eyes of moderate or small size ; 

 ocelli absent. Thorax with the pro- and mesonotum raised, more 

 or less convex, the pronotum very often laterally bitubercidate, 

 and the mesonotum with a transverse sulcation, the portion behind 

 w liich is raised into a more or less thickened transverse ridge ; 

 ineso-metanotal suture distinct ; metanotum with a basal portion 

 horizontal or sloping and endiug posteriorly in a spine or tooth 

 on each side, and an apical portion vertical or oblique : legs 

 moderately long and stout, claws simple. Pedicel two-jointed 

 with nodes above, the anterior node very often with an appendix 

 beneath ; abdomen more or less broadly oval. 



^ . Eesembles the % in the general shape of the thorax, 

 pedicel and abdomen, but is of course smaller; the pro-mesonotum 

 is never proportionately so high, and the abdomen is comparatively 

 narrow ; the head is much smaller, is ne\er deeply emarginate 

 and has the posterior margin very often convex ; the antennas are 

 as a rule proportionatelv much longer. 



2. Eesembles the ^, but has the head smaller and narrower 

 than the thorax, the ocelli are present, and the occiput only 

 slightly and very widely emarginate. Thorax massive, broad. Hat 

 above, the pronotum does not form part of the dorsum, and the 

 metanotal spines are stouter, sometimes triangular. Pedicel and 

 abdomen as in the 11 , but more massive. 



cJ . Eesembles the $ , but the head is much smaller, about as 

 long as it is broad across the eyes, which are very large and promi- 

 nent ; mandibles smaller, narrower ; antenna) 13-jointed. filiform. 



* Neither Sykes's original description nor subsequent descriptions by 

 Westwood or Jerdon are sufiiciently detailed to allow of the species named 

 " /irovidms" by Sykes to be discriminated from " indicus," Mayr, but it 

 probably was " providens" that Mayr re-named. 



