XXV1 INTRODUCTION. 
find the males and females furnished with 
wings, and the workers without them. 
The characters given by M. Latreille, 
to distinguish them more particularly, are 
that of having “the peduncle of the 
abdomen surmounted with a scale, or 
knotty; the abdomen of the workers 
and females ejaculating an acid, or armed 
with a sting; the antenne filiform, or 
slightly enlarged at their extremity, bent 
or fractured in the middle, composed of 
twelve or thirteen joints ; the second co- 
nical, of the same length as those that 
follow ; a tongue, spoon-shaped, entire ; 
the upper lip effaced; the palpi filiform 
unequal, anterior of five, posterior of four 
joints. ‘The first of these characters 
furnishes two very distinct families, the 
one, composed of all those ants that have 
the peduncle surmounted by a scale, the 
other, of all those in which it is formed 
of two knots. The characters of the 
first family, are—having the antenne fili- 
form, or pointed at the extremity; no 
sting; a simple venom-bag; the abdomen 
