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X. Descriptions of three new species of Hymenoptera 

 (Formicida?) from Neiu Zealand. By Frederick 

 Smith. 



[Read 6th September, 1876.] 



Since the description of Mr. Wakefield's collection was 

 in the press, three new and interesting species of Formi- 

 cidce have been sent to me by Mr. David Sharp ; two 

 belonging to genera not previously ascertained to inhabit 

 New Zealand, namely, Amblyopone and Ponera ; the type 

 of the former genus is figured in Wiegm. Arcliiv. (1842), 

 pi. vii. fig. 21, §. The type of the genus Orectogna- 

 thus is figured in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (1852, 

 1853), ph 21, fig. 9, 5. 



Fam. PONERID^. 

 Ponera castanea. 



Female. — Length 3| lines. Chestnut-red, usually with 

 the head and metathorax blackish ; the mandibles and 

 antenna3 reddish, the margin of the former denticulate, and 

 the tips of the joints of the latter fuscous or black ; the 

 head shining, very thinly punctured, and covered with a 

 thin sericeous pile. Thorax oblong-ovate and very finely 

 punctured, shining and finely pubescent ; legs red, the 

 calcaria pale testaceous. Abdomen smooth and shining, 

 the apex rufo-testaceous, having a thin sericeous pile and 

 a mixture of longer scattered pubescence ; the node of the 

 abdomen wedge-shaped, compressed above, with its upper 

 margin rounded. 



Worker. — Rather smaller than the female and of a 

 brighter red, but closely resembling that sex ; thorax 

 elongate, attenuated at the base of the metathorax, which 

 is as long as the pro- and meso-thorax, entirely smooth and 

 shining ; the node of the abdomen as in the female, the 

 claws of the tarsi simple in both sexes. 



Collected by Captain Brown at Tairua, near Mercury 

 Bay, North Island. 



TRANS. ENT. SOC. 1876.— PART IV. (dEC.) K K 



