696 Annals of the South African Museum. 



Rarely found nesting in sandy soil. The nest-entrance is surrounded 

 by a circular, high and sharp-edged crater. The walls of the crater, 

 both inside and out, are as steep as the angle of rest for the earthen 

 particles will allow them to be. This form of crater is distinctive 

 of this insect. 



(S.A.M., R.M., G.A. colls.). 



C. valdeziae, Forel. 

 Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sc. Nat., vol. 16, p. 90, & ?, 1879. 



This form is very closely related to race vestitus, and might even 

 be regarded as an extreme form of the same. But, apart from one 

 or two very constant structural differences, it also differs very greatly 

 in habits, being not only exceedingly like Plagiolepis custodiens to 

 the naked eye, but also closely mimicking that species in its mode of 

 life and rapid movements. For these reasons it appears best to treat 

 it as a distinct species. 



2|_, 7-8*7 mm. Colour not unlike that of vestitus, but the abdomen 

 is blackish brown, the rest of the body more brownish red or sometimes 

 more ochreous red than vestitus. The anterior third always paler or 

 more ochreous red than the rest of the' head. Pubescence of head 

 and thorax silvery grey. Pubescence of the abdomen greyish white 

 with a slight tinge of yellow, barely golden, longer but less dense than 

 in vestitus, not hiding the integument. Pilosity distinctly longer than 

 in that species and also more yellowish. Head, including the closed 

 mandibles, triangular, the sides less convex and converging more 

 rapidly in front than in vestitus. In the latter the head is as wide in 

 the middle as it is at its posterior sixth, whereas in valdeziae, it is 

 clearly narrower there than at the posterior sixth. The mandibles 

 are more shining and slightly more coarsely punctured. The frontal 

 carinae more divergent behind. The eyes larger, the whole head a 

 little less dull than in vestitus. The chief difference between the two 

 forms lies in the shape of the epinotum. In valdeziae the whole of the 

 dorsum of the epinotum is concave lengthwise, more deeply than in 

 vestitus, the declivity is less oblique and joins the dorsum in an obtuse 

 angle. The mesonotum is more convex lengthwise. The scale of 

 the petiole is subacuminate in the middle of the dorsal edge, not straight 

 as in vestitus. Posterior tibiae much less compressed than in vestitus, 

 almost cylindrical. 



S minor, 5*3-6-5 mm. In the larger examples the colour is like 

 that of the 21, in the smaller the colour is much darker, the head, 



