SIMA. 109 



dark brick-red ; legs fuscous black, more or less shaded with orange- 

 red ; mandibles, clypeus and antennae yellowish red ; pilosity and 

 pubescence sparse, the former consisting of a few scattered pale 

 hairs, the latter very often absent, but when present very thin, 

 short and silky, giving the thorax and abdomen especially a 

 whitish puberulose appearance. Head, legs, 2nd joint of the 

 pedicel and the abdomen shining, very minutely and closely 

 punctured, but not opaque ; thorax finely, densely punctured, 

 opaque. Head rectangular, a little longer than broad and only 

 very slightly narrower in front than posteriorly ; occiput broadly 

 rounded, almost transverse, the cheeks straight, ending anteriorly 

 in a distinct angle ; mandibles coarsely obsoletely striate, more or 

 less broadly linear, the inner and outer margins subparallel, the 

 masticatory margin with 5 or 6 acute teeth ; clypeus transverse, 

 narrow, raised in the middle which is slightly produced, giving the 

 anterior margin a bisinuate appearance ; anteunal carinae vertical, 

 parallel, with a longitudinal deeply impressed line or groove 

 between them ; antennas short and stout ; eyes lateral and some- 

 what to the front, situated more in the upper thau the lower half 

 of the head. Ocelli present. Thorax elongate; the pronotum 

 broad, its anterior lateral angles dentate, a medial small longi- 

 tudinal tubercle at its posterior margin, pro-mesonotal suture 

 arched to the front ; mesonoturn small, flat, forming the half of 

 an oval with its posterior margin transverse, a deep and wide 

 emargination at the meso-metanotal suture ; metanotum long, 

 longer than the pro- and mesonotum together, oval, convex, its 

 posterior portion oblique to the apex ; legs moderately long, stout. 

 Pedicel elongate, the 1st node oval, with a long petiole in front 

 obliquely sloping posteriorly, 2nd node conical, with a short 

 petiole in front, constricted posteriorly ; abdomen somewhat small, 

 oval, acute at apex ; sting exserted. 



$ . Very closely resembles the , but is of course slightly 

 larger and more massive, with a proportionately much shorter 

 metanotum, the mesonotum and scutellutn together being much 

 longer than the metanotum ; wings hyaline, slightly brownish in 

 tint ; 2nd node of the pedicel cup-shaped. 



Length, $ 10-5-13 ; $ 13-14 mm. 



Hob. Throughout our limits. 



This species is the most virulent of any ant known to me, its 

 sting being most painful and sometimes causing considerable 

 inflammation, Mr. Gr. A. James Eothney, in a paper in the Trans. 

 Ent. Soc. London, 1889, p. 353, gives a vivid account of the severe 

 pain caused to him by the sting of one of this species. 



S. rufonigra makes its nests in the dead wood of trees, and very 

 often, in Burma at least, in the clefts of the beams and posts of the 

 wooden resthouses scattered over the country. Personally, I 

 opened and examined only one nest, and that was in a hollow in 

 a Pvinkado tree (Xylia dolabriformis). The hollow was low down 

 in the tree, and the entrance or entrances, for there were several, 

 were quite at the base of the tree near the ground. 



