160 FOBMICID.E. 



reticulate, opaque or subopaque. Front and sides of the head striate. 

 On the vertex the striae are interrupted and form elongate tubercles. 

 Front in part smooth. Some striae on the thorax. Abdomen and 

 2nd node of pedicel smooth. Almost entirely without erect hairs. 

 A raised pubescence somewhat abundant on the body and legs. 

 Reddish yellow, a little ferruginous. Abdomen and legs of a 

 paler yellow." (Ford.) 



Length, $ 1-3-1-4 mm. 



Udb. Bengal: Orissa (Taylor). "A very aberrant species" 

 (fbrel). 



I have seen only one specimen of this species ; and that, in Mr. 

 "VVroughton's collection, is in spirits. It is impossible to examine 

 it well without setting and staging. I have therefore preferred to 

 quote Dr. Forel's full description. 



186. Solenopsis nitens, sp. nov. 



. Reddish brown ; mandibles, antennae and legs yellow. 

 Head, thorax and abdomen smooth, polished and shining, without 

 any sculpture ; pilosity pale, sparse, most plentiful on the front 

 and on the abdomen. Head proportionately rather large, rect- 

 angular, slightly emarginate posteriorly, sides not very convex, 

 very much longer than broad ; mandibles rather dull, subopaque, 

 the masticatory margin very oblique, armed with 4 teeth, the 

 apical tooth long and acute ; clypeus convex, the two carinae 

 conspicuous, their apices acutely dentate, yellowish in colour ; 

 antennae short, the scape not reaching the top of the head ; eyes 

 placed below the middle on the sides of the head. Thorax 

 anteriorly very convex; the pro-mesonotum forms a prominent 

 raised convexity, the posterior face of which slopes steeply back to 

 the deeply-marked meso-metanotal suture ; viewed in profile, the 

 thorax is deeply emarginate at the suture ; basal portion of 

 metanotum strongly compressed, very much narrower than the 

 front portion of the thorax, the apex truncate, the sides not 

 triangularly produced at the posterior lateral angles as in 

 S. geminaia ; legs rather slender. Pedicel elongate ; the 1st node 

 squamiform, rounded above, much broader than long, with a long 

 petiole anteriorly ; 2nd node rounded, as broad as long ; abdomen 

 oval. 



Length, $ 1-2-1-5 mm. 



Hub. Ceylon : Peradeniya near Kandy (Green). 



Genus PHIDOLOGITON. 



Ocodoma, pt., Jerdon, Mndr. Jour. L. S. xvii (1851), p. 110. 



Atta, pt., Pheidole, pt., and Solenopsis, pt., Smith, Cat. vi, 1858, 



pp. 164 & 174, and Jour. Linn. Soc. vi (J861), p. 48. 

 Phidologeton, Mayr, Verh. zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, xii (1862), p. 750. 



Type, P. diversus, Jerdon. 



Ranye. Judo-Malayan region. 



This genus is allied to and closely resembles Phidole. The 



