94 



PSYCHE 



[June. 



Body and appendages covered with sparse and rather long, suberect, yellow hairs. 

 Reddish yellow throughout except the mandibles, clypeus, and anterior border of the 

 head which are more brownish. 



Described from nine specimens taken at Austin, Tex., May 25, 1901 ; the 

 only occasion on which I have seen this species. The insects were moving along 

 under a stone in a small troop, all the members of which were very nearly of the 

 same diminutive size. The species is evidently hypogaeic in its habits like E. 

 coecum, nitens, commutatum, etc. 



It may be distinguished from all our North American Ecitons by its very small 

 size, and from the species above mentioned by its very long, narrow head and the 

 prominent, rather acute basal tooth of the mandibles. Mexican specimens which 

 I assign to E. commutatum Emery have the tooth broad and blunt and the head 

 is fully two thirds as broad as long. 



2. PONERA INEXORATA, Sp. nOV. 



Worker. Length 2.75-3.25 mm. 



Mandibles long and flattened, with concavely sinuate lateral borders and about a dozen 

 teeth, which are small and indistinct towards the base, but longer and more pointed towards 

 the tip of the blade. Head distinctly longer than broad with concave occipital margin and 

 subparallel sides. Clypeus broadly rounded in front, convex in the middle. Antennae 

 rather slender, scape reaching to the posterior angle of the head, 

 joints 2-5 of the funiculus fully as long as broad, the remaining 

 joints longer than broad. Ej'es very small, with at most 3-4 

 ommatidia in their longest diameter and situated about one 

 fourth the distance from the anterior to the posterior border of 

 the head. Thorax with very distinct promeso-notal and meso- 

 epinotal sutures ; pronotum broader than the succeeding tho- 

 racic segments, rounded, with rather sloping anterior angles ; 

 mesonotum convex ; epinotum laterally compressed, its basal 

 portion in profile horizontal and nearly straight, its declivity 

 flattened, with rounded sides, not carinate. Petiole decidedly 

 narrower than the first gastric segment, its anterior surface 

 flattened dorsoventrally but distinctly convex from side to side ; 

 posterior surface flat in both directions, so that the segment 

 ■when seen from above is somewhat semi-circular; seen from 

 behind the border of the node is nearly circular in outline. Gaster of the usual form. Legs 

 moderately stout, each tibia with a pair of spurs, one of which is pectinated. 



Surface of the body, especially the dorsal surface of the head, thorax, and petiole, shining. 

 Mandibles with coarse, scattered, piligerous punctures. Head covered rather densely but not 

 confluently with coarse piligerous punctures or small foveolae. Pronotum with similar but 

 smaller and sparser punctures; neck and mesonotum finely corrugated above; meso- and 



Fig. 2. Ponera imxorata, sp. nov. 

 Head of worker. 



