44 Mr. F. Smith on Hymenopterous Insects captured in India. 



VI. — Descriptions of some Hymenopterous Insects captured in 

 India, with notes on their (Economy, by Ezra T. Downes, Esq., 

 who presented them to the Honourable the East India Company. 

 By Frederick Smith, Assistant Zoological Department, Bri- 

 tish Museum. 



Genus Tetraponera. 



Head elongate, sides parallel, the vertex slightly emarginate; 

 eyes ovate, lateral, stemmata three, situated on the vertex ; the 

 antenna? 12-jointed, geniculate, subclavate, inserted in the sides 

 of a raised prominence above the base of the clypeus ; the man- 

 dibles stout, dentate, subarcuate, very broad at their apex, apical 

 teeth crossing, slightly narrowed at their base. Thorax elongate, 

 obtusely rounded at base and apex ; legs moderate in length. 

 Abdomen elongate, the two basal segments constricted, forming 

 two nodes, the first half the width of the second ; petiole elongate 

 ovate, the second segment globose, the remaining portion of the 

 abdomen elongate ovate. 



Tetraponera atrata. 



Female (length 4^ lines) black, 

 shining, the antennae dark fusco-fer- 

 ruginous, the basal joint one-third of 

 their entire length; the mandibles 

 rugose, pubescent, their apical tooth 

 long and acute ; the prothorax trans- 

 verse in front, the anterior coxae di- 

 lated, compressed at their sides, the 

 claws rufo-testaceous, the calcaria 

 testaceous. The abdomen has here 

 and there a long hair or bristle, parti- 

 cularly on the first node of the abdo- 

 men and at the apex, the margins of 

 the fourth and fifth segments narrowly 

 piceous at their apical margins. 



Hab. Bombay. 



This insect as far as I know is 

 unique, nor will it fall into any 



established genus ; in some characters it approaches Myrmecia, 

 the abdomen closely resembling that of the insects of that ge- 

 nus, but the head and thorax are totally different, there being 

 no constriction between the meso- and meta-thorax ; it also ap- 

 proaches the Condylodon of Lund in having short stout toothed 

 mandibles, but it has small lateral eyes similar to Ponera. I 

 should therefore assign it a place between Ponera and Condy- 

 lodon. 



