A Monograph of the Formicidae of South Africa. 599 



P. (sub-gen. Anoplolepis) melanaria, n. sp. 



^. 2 , 8-3 , l mm. Black, all the tarsi, the anterior tibiae and the 

 scapes more or less ochreous, the flagellum dirty brownish yellow, 

 the mandibles bright reddish ochreous. Moderately shining, and 

 almost smooth and without sculpture, at the most only very super- 

 ficially and microscopically rugulose. Clothed with a very short, 

 adjacent and brownish yellow pubescence. A few short brownish 

 pilose hairs on the abdomen and clypeus. Very similar to P. Mac- 

 gregori from which it differs in the colour, absence of sculpture, the 

 shining integument, and also in the following characters. 



The head is a little longer than wide, (one-sixth); the eyes are 

 more convex and much larger, occupying nearly one-third of the 

 sides of the head, (one-fourth in Macgregori) ; the scapes are longer, 

 extending beyond the hind margin by one-fourth of their length, 

 (one-tenth in Macgregori) ; the scale of the petiole is very thin 

 above, almost trenchant, and the dorsum of the epinotum is more 

 convex lengthwise. 



^ replete. 4*5 mm. (the abdomen 2 - 5 mm. long). Mesonotum a 

 trifle wider than long, or as wide as long; the dorsum of the epi- 

 notum shorter than the declivity. Scale of petiole wide^ above and 

 feebly emarginate in the middle. Otherwise like the normal ^. 



Sawmills, Umgusa River. S. Rhodesia. The nest is made in 

 loose sandy soil, usually near the roots of a shrub or of grass. It is 

 surrounded by an iuregular crater and has an unusually wide and 

 more or less elliptical entrance. 



(S.A.M., R.M., G.A. colls.; types in my collection). 



P. (sub-gen. Anoplolepis) decolor, Emery. 

 Ann. Soc. Ent. France, Vol. 63, p. 44, §. 1895. 



"^. l'7-25 mm. Flavo-testaceous, the head darker, the apex of 

 the abdomen fuscous, dull, the cheeks, lower surface of the head 

 and the coxae shining, pubescent, without erect pilose hairs on the 

 clypeus and abdomen, head subquadrate, the angles rounded, the 

 scapes extend barely beyond the occipital margin, thorax robust, 

 distinctly impressed at the meso-epinotal suture, epinotum convex, 

 the scale small, inclined forwards, acutely cuneiform." 



Ham man's Kraal; Kimberley. 



"A little less squat than P. pygmaea, which this species resembles 

 in the slightly depressed shape of the head and in the small scale, 

 inclined forwards and cuneiform in profile. The thorax is formed in 



