A Monograph of the Formicidae of South Africa. 741 



little less angularly than in the 2J.. Scale more shallowly emarginate. 

 Otherwise like the 2J.. 



"$, 14 mm. Head red, all the rest black. Abdomen with the same 

 sort of pilosity and pubescence as the $. Scale fairly thin." 



Natal, 3,000 ft. (Haviland) ; Capetown, $. (Wilms). 



(G.A. coll., ex Haviland coll. in the Natal Museum). 



Genus POLYRACHIS, Shuckard ? (Smith). 



Shuckard, Hist. Insects, 1840. 



Smith, Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc, 11, p. 58, 1858. 



Characters. 



$. Antennae 12-jointed, flagellum filiform, scapes long. Maxillary 

 palpi 6-, labial palpi 4-jointed. Monomorphic. Frontal carinae 

 always raised. Pronotum, and often epinotum armed with spines 

 or teeth. (Mesonotum unarmed in all our species.) Lateral margins 

 of the dorsum of the thorax sharply marginate in nearly all S. African 

 species, the sides of the thorax vertical. Scale of the petiole nearly 

 always armed with spines or teeth. Abdomen more or less globose, 

 the 1st segment much larger than the rest, forming half or more of 

 the abdomen. 



$. Antennae as in the $. Armature of the thorax much weaker 

 than in the £, or obsolete. Wings with a closed radial and one 

 cubital cell, the cubital vein usually reaching the outer margin, no 

 discoidal cell. 



cj. Antennae 13- jointed. Thorax and petiole unarmed, the 

 epinotal stigmatic orifices sometimes very prominent laterally. Very 

 much like the <$($ of Camponotus, in many cases indistinguishable 

 from them. Distribution. Both hemispheres. 



The species of Polyrachis nest either in trees or in the ground. 

 The nest is frequently made of a silky woven material, intermixed in 

 some cases with carton. With some species, the entrance to the 

 nest is surmounted by a raised wall of woven grass or similar material, 

 intermixed with what appears to be silk. 



Key to the species of Polyrachis, £. 



(14) 1. Large species, not less than 8 mm. long ; the pronotum with acute spines 

 which are as long as, or nearly as long as, the portion of the pronotum 

 behind them, or at least twice as long as their basal width. 



