COLOBOPSIfc. 



343 



Node of the pedicel thick, oval, sometimes transverse ; abdomen 

 short, broad, oval. 



$ min. Similar to the $ maj. in the shape of the thorax and 

 abdomen, but the anterior portion of the head is only bent down 

 at an obtuse angle, scarcely truncate. 



$ . Similar to the maj. in the shape of the head, but the 

 thorax and abdomen are, as usual in all ants, more massive. 



The species of Colobopsis, though widely diffused in India, 

 Burma, and Ceylon, are nowhere very plentiful. One species, 

 C. pubescens, lives in hollows of trees, and the min. on being 

 touched emits an acrid milky juice. 



Key to the Species. 



A 



Colour black, or black and red. 



a. Head, thorax and abdomen entirely black. 

 '. Covered with a thin grey pubescence .... 

 b'. Covered with a dense yellow pubescence . 



b. Head maj. black, anteriorly red, of $ min. 



entirely black ; thorax and abdomen black. 

 a'. With a yellow spot on each side of base 



of abdomen 



b'. Without a yellow spot, abdomen entirely 



black , 



c. Head, thorax, legs and node of pedicel 



yellowish brown 



B. Colour entirely brownish red 



C. Colour entirely testaceous yellow 



C. stricta, p. 343. 

 C. pubescent, p. 344. 



C. cotesi, p. 345. 



C. anyustata, p. 345. 



C. rothneyi, p. 346. 

 C. saundersi, p. 348. 

 C. testacea, p. 347. 



394. Colobopsis stricta, Jerd. (Formica), Madr. Jour. L. 8f S. xvii 

 (1851), p. 128, ; Smith (Formica), Cat. vi (1858), p. 16, $ $; 

 Foref, Jour. Bomb. N. H. Soc. vii (1893), p. 438. 



maj. Black with a few scattered 

 erect brown hairs, and a soft thin 

 greyish pile chiefly visible on the 

 abdomen ; antennae, thorax and legs 

 very dark castaneous brown, almost, 

 but not quite, black. Head very 

 large and massive, a little narrower 

 in front than across the vertex, 

 the anterior truncated portion 

 of the head depressed, the basal 

 portion of the clypeus being thus 

 bent downwards and inwards; the 

 cheeks on either side of the depressed 

 portion acutely ridged and coarsely 

 obliquely striate ; the lower portion 

 of the head above truncation lon- 

 gitudinally striate. Thorax narrow, 

 a shallow transverse, rather broad 

 . nau. sulcus marking the meso-metanotal 



suture ; basal portion of metauotum rounded above and posteriorly, 



Fig. 103,CblobotHUiMcta, <J>. 

 a. Head. 



