NEW SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS 25 



_ The whole body is covered with a very distinct greyish pubescence forming a 

 light down. Legs reddish. The rest as in the worker. 



Collected by G. Turner. Mackay, Q. 



25. Prolasius nicjer, Clark. 



Mem, Xat. Mus. Vict., 8, p. 68, 1934, $ 

 Worker : 



Length: 3 -4-3 -Sunn. 



Black. Mandibles antennas and tarsi brown. Legs blackish brown. 



Smooth and shining. Mandibles feebly striate and punctate. Clypeus micro 

 scopically reticulate. Scapes and legs very finely and densely punctate. 



Clypeus sharply connate on anterior two thirds. 



Scapes extend beyond the occipital border by half their length. First segment 

 of the funiculus slightly longer than second and twice as lour/ as broad. 



I leech Forest, Vic. 



Genus MBLOPHORUS, Lubbock, 1883. 



Mclophorus potteri, new species. (Fig. 1.) 

 Major Worker : 



Length : 4 LM Snun. 



Head and promesonotum bright red. epinotum and node brownish red, gaster 

 shining black, mandibles brownish red. 



Hair yellowish, long and confined 1o mandibles, clypeus and underside of 

 gaster. Pubescence greyish, confined to funiculus, tibise and tarsi. 



Mandibles shining, smooth with some scattered punctures. Head smooth 

 and shining with very minute punctures. Pronotum transversely striate very 

 finely. Mesonotum more feebly striate and the striation is rather circular. 

 Epinotum reticulate and densely and finely punctate. The sides of the thorax 

 very finely and densely reticulate though rather transversely striate on epinotum. 

 Node very finely reticulate and the gaster very finely transversely striate. 



Head excluding the mandibles very slightly longer than broad, slightly 

 broader in front than behind, with almost straight sides and occipital border, 

 the posterior angles broadly rounded. Mandibles Large and broad, furnished 

 with five even strong teeth. Clypeus strongly convex in front, raised and 

 projecting over the mandibles to a very marked degree. Frontal carina very 

 short, hardly noticeable in some specimens. Antenna! insertions quite exposed. 

 Frontal area faint, triangular, but no sign of frontal groove. Scapes extend to 

 the occipital border. First segment of the funiculus twice as long as the 

 second, remaining segments twice or almost twice as long as broad, apical 

 segment slightly longer than the preceding one. Eyes small, rather flat, Dear 

 the sides, with the anterior border just behind the middle of the sides. Ocelli 

 small but distinct. 



Thorax twice as lone- as its broadest part, which is a line through the prono- 

 tum. Pronotum slightly broader than Long, with sides strongly convex. 

 Mesonotum longer than broad, twice as broad in from as behind, with a marked 

 depression near the mesoepinota] suture. The apex of this triangular depression, 

 or metanotum is raised slightly over the dorsum of the epinotum. Epinotum 

 twice as long as broad, the sides sloping inwards to form the dorsal surface 

 which is one and three quarter times longer than broad, with feebly convex 

 sides, convex posterior border, and broader behind than in front. In profile 

 the pronotum and mesonotum form an even convexity with a marked promesonotal 

 suture, metanotum small, its dorsum raised slightly behind. Epinotal dorsum 



