188 Annals of the South African Museum. 



and ambigua they are more than one-third the length of the head. 

 4-4-5 rani. Pretoria." 



Tribe MELISSOTABSINI, Emery. 



Genus MELISSOTAESUS, Emery. 

 Ann. Muss. Civ. Gen., vol. 9, p. 16, 1877. 



Characters. 



$ . Antennae 6-jointed, the club 2-jointed ; frontal carinae closely 

 approximated. Thorax without a trace of sutures. First joint of 

 petiole elongate and triangular, 2nd joint short, transverse, fused 

 behind with the abdomen. Legs thick and short, 1st joint of the 

 anterior or of all the tarsi greatly enlarged, and as wide or nearly as 

 wide as the tibia. Mandibles bluntly tridentate or with the teeth 

 more or less produced and acuminate, especially the apical.* 



$ . Similar to the $ , the teeth on the mandibles acute. Tarsi as 

 in the $ . Pronotum but slightly exposed dorsally. Wings with 1 

 closed cubital and 1 closed radial cell ; stigma absent. 



$ . Antennae 12-jointed, filiform, scape three times as long as the 

 1st joint of the flagellum. Mandibles small, not well developed. 

 Petiole as in the $ and £ . Tarsi simple. Genital armature exserted. 

 Wings as in the $ . 



M. Beccarii, Emery. (Plate V, figs. 51, 51a and &.) 



Loc. cit., p. 17, 1/, $'. 



$ . 22 mm. Head and thorax reddish ochreous, the front of the 

 head darker, the mandibles ferruginous ; legs, antennae and abdomen 

 pale dirty yellow. A very fine and scanty pubescence on the legs and 

 antennae, but absent on the body. Pilosity pale, long and very sparse 

 on the head and abdomen, shorter and even scantier on the thorax. 

 Head microscopically and longitudinally strigose, also finely and 

 sparsely punctured. Dorsum of thorax with very even and distinct 

 longitudinal striae which become feeble towards the brow of the 

 declivity ; the declivous anterior and posterior faces of the thorax 

 smooth. Petiole and abdomen microscopically reticulate and shining, 

 legs smooth and shining, head and thorax dull. Head sub-quadrate, 



* After seeing a long series of M. Beccarii, it appears to me that Emery's 

 division of the neuter caste into % and "$ cannot be maintained. There is a 

 complete gradation between forms with narrow heads and acute mandibles, 

 and those with broader heads and blunt mandibles. 



