1921] Wheeler: Tachigalia Ants 163 



22. — Azteca traili Emery. 



A few workers and pupae belonging to an incipient colony 

 of this species were taken during September from a Tachigalia 

 petiole at Kartabo. The species has been recorded by Forel and 

 Emery from other myrmecophytes (leaf-sacs of Tococa guianen- 

 sis and other Melastomacese, root-stocks of Polypodium) . 



23. — Azteca foveiceps sp. nov. 

 (Fig. 16, a-c) 



Worker. Length 1.7-2.2 mm. 



Closely related to A. schumanni Emery; practically mono- 

 morphic. Head flattened, about one and one-fifth times as long 

 as broad, distinctly narrower in front than behind, with rather 

 straight sides and excised posterior border. In the middle of the 

 head above a small, shallow impression, or fovea. Eyes small, flat, 

 less than twice their length from the anterior corners of the 

 head. Mandibles curved, their apical borders with nine teeth, 

 alternately larger and smaller. Clypeus feebly convex behind, 

 flattened in front, with nearly straight, feebly bisinuate anterior 

 border. Frontal area obsolete; frontal groove absent; frontal 

 carinte very short. Antennae short and thick; scapes enlarged 

 and somewhat flattened at the tip, reaching only to the middle 

 of the distance between the posterior orbits and the posterior 

 corners of the head; joints 2-10 of funiculi very short and trans- 

 verse, the more basal fully three times as broad as long. Thorax 

 short and stout, about twice as long as the transverse diameter 

 of the pronotum. Sutures, especially the mesoepinotal, pro- 

 nounced and impressed; mesonotum as long as broad, convex 

 but rising very little above the pronotum. Epinotum rounded 

 subcuboidal, the base longer than the declivity, the former hori- 

 zontal, the latter steep. Petiole small, the node high, squamiform, 

 inclined forward, elliptical from behind, its border narrowed 

 above, only moderately sharp in profile. Caster elongate elliptical, 

 the first segment short, with a deep impression anteriorly for the 

 accommodation of the petiole. Legs stout. 



Shining ; very finely but not densely punctate ; the punctures 

 on the mandibles more distinct. 



