196 Mr. Shuckard's Monograph of the Dorylidee, 



proximate affinities. Thus Rhogmus by its two recurrent nervures 

 leads off to the Mutillidce, and from general habit Dorylus closely 

 approaches it : between the latter and Labidus intervenes ^nictus, 

 which participates in the characters of both ; whilst finally, taking 

 them inversely, Labidus distinctly points towards Ponera amongst 

 the Social Heterogyna. 



Genus 1. Labidus, Jurine. 

 Dorylus, Fab, partly? 



Char. Body elongate, cylindrical. 



Head small, short, transverse, flat. 



Antennce varying in length, usually setaceous, curved and inserted within 

 two facial projections (forming vertical carina) upon the anterior mar- 

 gin of the nearly obsolete clypeus, the scape never more than one-fourth 

 the length of the flagellum, the apex of which frequently extends as far 

 back as the insertion of the superior wings. 



Eyes large, lateral, subglobose, and very prominent. 



Ocelli large and very prominent, and placed in a curve upon the vertex. 



Mandibles elongate, slender, arcuate, and forcipate, always leaving an open 

 space usually semicircular between them and the clypeus. 



Labrum triangular, the apex rounded, and in repose shutting down upon 

 and inclosing the internal trophi. 



MaxillcB ? 



Maxillary palpi two-jointed, shorter than the labial?* 



Labial palpi two-jointed, slender, the basal joint the longest. 



Labium triangular. 



Thorax ovate, gibbous : prothorax extending laterally to the insertion of 

 the wings, which is at about half the length of the thorax : scutellum 

 transverse : mctathorax perpendicular and abruptly truncated. 



Superior tvitigs usually as long or longer than the abdomen, rai-cly shorter. 



* Latreille throughout all his works says the " maxillary palpi are at 

 least as long as the labial, and consist of four or at least three joints." {Palpi 

 maxillares labialium saltern longitudine, arliculis quatuor aut ad mmimum 

 tribus. — Genera Crustac. et Insect., iv. 12.3.) except in his portion of the 

 ' Regne Animal' of Cuvier, where he says, vol. v. p. 315, that they consist of 

 at least /owr joints : but he here further says of this genus, that the man- 

 dibles are shorter and less slender than in Dorylus ; the reverse of which 

 is the case. Now all this implies very unsatisfactory uncertainty, and I am 

 therefore disposed to consider that Jurine is correct, and that the palj)! are 

 constructed as stated in the text. I have unfortunately not had the oppor- 

 tunity of dissecting a specimen, as only single specimens of any species are 

 extant in any collection, and the extreme minuteness of the parts would in- 

 volve the certain destruction of the head: from the same cause I have been 

 unable to examine the male sexual organ, and to compare it with those of 

 the other genera; but this is the less necessary here, as the genus is otherwise 

 very obviously distinguishable from the rest. 



