THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



No. 19.] SEPTEMBER, MDCCCLXV. [Price 6d. 



Confribtifions io the Natural Hiaiory of Amtralian Ants. 

 By Benjamin T. Lowne, Esq., M.R.C.S. Eng. 



I SPENT the months of September, October and November 

 (the spring in the Southern Hemisphere), 1862, in New 

 South Wales, and paid some attention to the natural history 

 of ants : I made collections of thirty-three species in the 

 vicinity of Sidney, eighteen of which, as far as 1 have been 

 able to ascertain, were new. 



The following is a list of the species I obtained, with notes 

 from my journal on their habits, and desci'iptions of the new 

 species. 



I take the present opportunity of acknowledging the as- 

 sistance I have received, in comparing and naming speci- 

 mens, from Mr. F. Smith, who has always afforded me 

 valuable information in my researches. 



Genus Fokmica. 

 Section I. 



1. F. piirpiirea, Sm. — This is by far the commonest ant 

 in the neighbourhood of Sidney. The workers were received 

 from Melbourne before my visit. I discovered F. detecta, 

 Sm., to be the female of this species, an insect which Mr. 

 Smith placed in the first section of the genus, because the 

 anterior wings present a discoidal cell ; whilst he has placed 

 the workers, F. purpurea, in the second, owing to the ab- 

 sence of ocelli. I have preferred to place the insect by the 

 affinities of the wings, believing them to be the more im- 

 portant characters. The males have not hitherto been de- 

 scribed. 



Male 4 lines long, bright violet. Antennae, except their 

 first joint, and tarsi ferruginous. The first pair of legs almost 

 ferruginous. Head, thorax and legs covered with a black 

 pubescence. Wings subyhaline, nervures rufo-fuscous. 



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