166 Annals of the South African Museum. 



altogether absent. There is, therefore, in this sub-family, as, indeed, 

 is the case with the whole family, a large and magnificent field for 

 patient work and observation, whereby a rich harvest may be reaped 

 by naturalists in South Africa. The use of monographs should not 

 be merely to aid the collector to identify the specimens in his cabinet, 

 but more especially to enable the field-naturalist to study the living 

 animal, and to assign his observations correctly to those species on 

 which they are made, so that such data may be definitely recorded for 

 reference and study by others. 



The scheme of classification herewith adopted for the tribes is that 

 which has recently been proposed by Prof. C. Emery, in a paper 

 entitled " Intorno alia classificazione dei Myrmicinae " (Eendiconto d. 

 Sess. E. Acad. d. Scienze d. Inst. Bologna, January, 1914), and the 

 following key has been adapted for the tribes found in South Africa, 

 from the key published by him in those pages. Owing to the fact 

 that this work is being published from time to time in parts, and to 

 the lengthy study required by the tribe Pheidolini, I have not found 

 it practicable to treat of the tribes in the order in which they appear 

 in this key. This is, I believe, not a point of much importance, since 

 in the present state of our knowledge it is not possible to make any 

 definite assertions as to the phylogenetic relationship of one tribe to 

 another. 



Key to the Tribes of Myrmicinae found in South Africa. 



Section I. PROMYRMICINAE, Emery. 



Clypeus not prolonged baclcivards between the frontal carinae, its posterior 

 margin rounded; inner calcaria of middle and hind tibiae pectinij "orm ; ocelli 

 almost alivays present in the £ . 



Antennae 12- jointed in the £ and $ , 13-jointed in the $ , anterior wings with 

 two closed cubital cells .... Pseudomyrmini, Forel. 



Section II. ETTMYRMICLNAE, Emery. 

 Clypeus almost always prolonged backwards between the frontal carinae; if not, 

 then the calcaria of the middle and hind tibiae are simple or absent ; in the 

 ordinary $ the ocelli are not developed, in strongly dimorphic species they may be 

 more or less visible in the £ major or %. 



A. All the calcaria peetiniform (not South African). 



Myrmicini, F. Smith, Emery emend. 

 AA. Calcaria of the middle and hind tibiee simple or absent. 



B. Anterior wings with two closed cubital cells (except in some extra- 

 South African genera) ; antennae 12-jointed in the £ and $ , 13-jointed 

 in the $ (except in a small number of Pheidole and extra-South African 

 genera) ...... Pheidolini, Emery. 



