14 NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 



dorsum. Node convex transversely. In profile thorn-like, bluntly pointed 

 almost as high as the epinotum, and has the anterior face and posterior face 

 almost straight. Legs slender. 



Collected by J. Clark. Ludlow, W.A. 



Type in the National Museum of Vic. 



4. Prolasius zealandica, Smith. 



Formica zealandica, Smith, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., p. 6, 1878. 5 



Emery, Genera Insect, fasc. 183, p. 271, 1925. 

 Colobopsis zealandica, Wheeler, Bull. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sc., 62, p. 127, 



1927. 

 Original description by Smith. 



Female : 



Length: 2| lines. 



The abdomen black, the head and thorax blackish brown, covered with a fine 

 cinereous pile, which is most dense on the abdomen; mandibles, the scapes of 

 the antennas, and the flagellum at their base and apex pale rufo-testaceous. 

 The thorax ovate, smooth and shining, the metanotum obliquely truncate, the 

 femora rufo-fuscus, with their apex, the tibia and tarsi pale rufo-testaceous; 

 the tibiae usually more or less fuscus in the middle. Abdomen ovate shining 

 with the margin of the segments very narrowly testaceous; scale of petiole 

 ovate and emarginate above. 



Collected by Prof. Hutton. New Zealand. 



New description of worker from Nelson, New Zealand. 



Worker : 



Length : 3mm. 



Testaceous with gaster and head darker brown. 



Head mesonotum and epinotum covered with shallow microscopic punctures. 

 Hair yellow, long, erect confined to the gaster and the clypeus. Pubescence 

 whitish, fine, adpressed. abundant throughout but not hiding the sculpture. 

 Head slightly less than a quarter longer than broad with the sides and occipital 

 border convex, but to a very small degree, corners broadly rounded. Mandibles 

 triangular and furnished with six short sharp teeth. Clypeus rounded in front, 

 and not carinated. Frontal area transversely triangular. Frontal carina? 

 parallel and slightly longer than broad. The scapes extend beyond the occipital 

 border by more than a third of their length. The first segment of the 

 funiculus is slightly longer than the two following together, the fourth as long- 

 as broad while the apical is slightly longer than the two preceding taken 

 together. Eyes moderately large and convex, placed just behind the middle 

 of the sides. Ocelli small. 



Thorax little more than twice as long as broad. Pronotum slightly broader 

 than long, with very strongly convex sides. The promesonotal suture deeply 

 impressed. Mesonotum one and a half times longer than broad, with straight 

 parallel sides. Epinotum slightly broader than long, feebly convex, and very 

 slightly broader behind than in front. In profile the pronotum and mesonotum 

 form an almost even convexity. Epinotum slopes upward behind, and the 

 dorsum is almost straight or feebly convex. 



Epinotal declivity straight and almost twice as long as the dorsum. Node 

 convex transversely, while in profile the anterior face is feebly concave and the 

 posterior face straight. Legs slender. 



Collected by E. B. Gourley. Nelson, New Zealand. 



