220 FOKMICIDvE. 



Genus PHIDOLE. 



Formica, pt., Fubr. Ent. Syst. ii (1793), p. 361. 



Atta, pt., Sykes, Trans. Ent. Soc. i (1835), p. 103, , pi. 13, fig. 2. 



Pheidole, Wcstw. A. M. N. H. vi (1841), p. 87. 



Type, P. providens, Sykes, from India *. 



Ranye. Both hemispheres. 



11. Head always in appearance somewhat disproportionately 

 large as compared with the body ; occiput with a medial, more or 

 less deep emargination dividing the head posteriorly almost into 

 two lobes ; mandibles strong, broad, triangular, with or without 

 teeth along the masticatory margin ; clypeus narrow, produced 

 medially back between the bases of the antennae, in a few species 

 produced a little anteriorly also, the anterior border sometimes 

 emarginate in the middle; frontal area small, depressed ; antennal 

 carinse very often as long as the scape, bordering on one side a 

 groove into which the scape and flagellum fold up ; antennae 12- 

 jointed, the club of the flagellum composed of the apical three 

 joints (in two Indian species and some American species of the 

 apical tour joints, Geratophidole) ; eyes of moderate or small size ; 

 ocelli absent. Thorax with the pro- and mesonotum raised, more 

 or lees convex, the pronotum very often laterally bituberculate, 

 and the mesonotum with a transverse sulcation, the portion behind 

 which is raised into a more or less thickened transverse ridge ; 

 meso-metanotal suture distinct ; metanotum with a basal portion 

 horizontal or sloping and ending posteriorly in a spine or tooth 

 on each side, and an apical portion vertical or oblique ; legs 

 moderately long and stout, claws simple. Pedicel two-jointed 

 with nodes above, the anterior node very often with an appendix 

 beneath ; abdomen more or less broadly oval. 



$ . Eesembles the 1J. in the general shape of the thorax, 

 pedicel and abdomen, but is of course smaller ; the pro-niesonotum 

 is never proportionately so high, and the abdomen is comparatively 

 narrow ; the head is much smaller, is never deeply emarginate 

 and has the posterior margin very often convex ; the antennae are 

 as a rule proportionatelv much longer. 



$ . Eesembles the ty, but has the head smaller and narrower 

 than the thorax, the ocelli are present, and the occiput only 

 slightly and very widely emarginate. Thorax massive, broad, flat 

 above, the pronotum does not form part of the dorsum, and the 

 metanotal spines are stouter, sometimes triangular. Pedicel and 

 abdomen as in the I/ , but more massive. 



c? . E-esembles the $ , but the head is much smaller, about as 

 long as it is broad across the eyes, which are very large and promi- 

 nent ; mandibles smaller, narrower ; antennae 13-joiuted, filiform, 



* Neither Sykes's original description nor subsequent descriptions by 

 V\ estwood or Jerdon are sufficiently detailed to allow of the species named 

 " /trovideiis" by Sykes to be discriminated from " indicus," Mayr, but it 

 probably was " providens" that Mayr re-named. 



