HENRY J. FRANKLIN. 437 



Wings. — Somewhat lighter as a rule than those of workers ; quite 

 strongly stained with brown. 



Legs. — Coxae, trochanters and fore femora usually entirely black, 

 sometimes the two former with a slight sprinkling of yellow hairs ; 

 middle and hind femora usually entirely black, except for a small 

 amount of yellow pile often present near their apices on the outer side ; 

 fore and middle tibiae usually entirely black, but sometimes with a 

 little ferruginous pile on their hind sides near the tip ; fringes of hind 

 tibias usually black, but sometimes rather strongly ferruginous. Outer 

 faces of hind tibiae convex and bare ; fore fringes short ; hind fringes 

 only moderately long. Posterior metatarsi from three and one-half to 

 four times as long as their greatest width, with hairs fringing hind 

 borders long. 



Dimensions. — Length : queen, 17 mm. to 21 mm. ; worker, 11 mm. 

 to 16 mm.; male, 14 mm. to 20 mm. Spread of wings: queen, 44 

 mm. to 50 mm. ; worker, 28 mm. to 35 mm. ; male, 36 mm. to 40 

 mm. Width of abdomen at second segment: queen, 10^ mm. to 12| 

 mm. ; worker, 6| mm. to 8 mm. ; male, 7| mm. to 8^ mm. 



Redescribed from five queens (one of them a homotype), 

 two workers and six males. 



Variations. — The above described queen and worker are 

 the typical forms of this species, but the abdomen is quite 

 variable, and the following variations, between which I have 

 seen every conceivable gradation, seem distinct enough to 

 be worthy of description : 



Color Variant 1. — Like the typical queen and worker, but with all 

 the abdominal segments beyond the second entirely black. (Three 

 queens and one worker.) 



Color Variant 2. — The typical queen and worker, described above. 



Color Variant 3. — Like the typical queen and worker, but with the 

 three apical dorsal abdominal segments entirely covered with ferru- 

 ginous pile. (Two queens and five workers.) 



Color Variant 4. — Like Color Variant 3, but with the four apical 

 dorsal segments covered with ferruginous pile. (Two queens.) 



Habitat. — I have records of this species from southern 

 California only, as follows : Tulare County, Ventura County, 

 Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, San Jose, 

 Ontario, Claremont and San Diego. This shows that the 

 species is confined pretty closely to the Upper and Lower 

 Austral Zones and mainly to the latter. Probably it is to 

 be found in some abundance in Lower California. Is it 



TRANS. AM. KNT. SOC, XXXVIII. 



