178 BRITISH ANTS. 



Tetramorium caespitum L., var. hammi var. nov. 



^ Dirty yellow-brown, shining, mandibles, antennae, and legs lighter. 

 Head and thorax finely longitudinally striate ; epinotal spines very short 

 and pointed. Petiole, post-petiole and gaster smooth and shining. Long. 

 2-4 mm. 



Described from a number of specimens taken by Mr. A. H. 

 Hamm in the New Forest on August 25th, 1912. 



The sculpture is less rugose, the spines are shorter and less 

 robust, and the petiole and post-petiole are smoother and more 

 shining than in the type. 



This variety comes near to the var. schmidti Forel [Rev. Suisse 

 Zool. 12 15 (1904)], and the var. semilaeve Andre [Spec. Hym. Europe 

 2 286 (1881)], but it is not so robust as the former, the head, thorax, 

 petiole, and post-petiole are not so broad, and the spines are 

 smaller, finer and more pointed. Compared to the latter it is less 

 yellow, the striation of the head and thorax is a little stronger, and 

 the spines are a little smaller and more pointed. Hamm's specimens 

 were all found walking about on the bare sand, within a few feet 

 in area, but he was not able to find their nest. 



Subfamily Dolichoderinae Forel. 



This subfamily comprises a number of genera which are found 

 all over the world, though chiefly in the Tropics ; a very few occur 

 in Europe, of which only one genus (Tapinoma Forster) is present 

 in Britain. 



They form a natural, very homogeneous, group, and are more 

 primitive than the Camponotinae. 



The gizzard is of a complex and peculiar structure, the sting is 

 vestigial (except in one genus), nearly all the genera possess, in the 

 female and worker, repugnatorial glands which give off a character- 

 istic odour, which is said to resemble that of rotten cocoanuts, and 

 has been called " Tapinoma odour," and the pupae are naked, never 

 being enclosed in cocoons. 



TAPINOMA Forster. 



[TctTreiVu/ia, a lowering (i.e. the scale).] 



Type : Formica erratica Latr. (=collina Forster ; Forst., 1850). 



The genus Tapinoma ranges over the hot and temperate regions 

 of the whole globe, with the exception of New Zealand, and contains 

 some twenty-four species. Its colonies are mostly very populous 

 and inhabit dry places ; two species being known to live in the 

 nests of Termites. 



^ Head scutiform, broadest before base ; clypeus broad, with the anterior 

 margin deeply and narrowly excised in the centre ; frontal carinae parallel ; 

 frontal area not defined ; mandibles long, triangular, the whole terminal 



