78 BULLETIN" 826, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
forms generally are of a yellowish or brownish-yellow color, some- 
times a milk white. Wax-secreting plates are present but they 
are not developed to the same extent as are those of the Prociphilini. 
The cornicles are lost entirely and the region where these usually 
occur is occupied by wax plates. In some species the wax areas are 
reduced. Some species are armed with fine hairs, whereas others 
are almost entirely smooth. The eyes in the apterous forms are 
composed of three facets. The alate forms have rather short, thick 
antennae with somewhat oval sensoria. Three genera compose the 
tribe and these may be separated as follows: 
Key to the Genera of the Fordin 
1. Antennae of the alate form composed of five segments Forda. 
Antennse of the alate form composed of six segments 2. 
2. Sensoria of the antennse of the alate form small and scattered over most 
of the segment, a central triangular wax plate on the thorax; apterous 
form with six-segmented antenna? Paracletus. 
Sensoria of the antennse of the alate form larger and more evenly placed; the 
sensoria sometimes extending evenly across the segment. Apterous form 
with five-segmented antennse, sometimes with six segments present Geoica. 
Genus FORDA Heyden 
Plate XIII, V-AA. 
1837.' Forda Heyden, Mus. Sinkbg., v. 2, p. 291. 
1841. RMzoterus Hartig. Zeit. Ent., v. 3, p. 363. 
1849. Smynthurodes Westwood, Gardener's Chron., p. 420. 
1896. Pentaphis Horvath, Wien. Ent. Zeit., v. 15, p. 2. 
1909. Pentaphis Del Guercio, RMst. Patol. Vegetale, n. s., v. 3, p. 332. 
1914. Rectinasus Theobald, The Entomologist, v. 47, p. 28. 
In 1837 Heyden erected his genus Forda, the type of which is 
formicaria Heyden. In 1896 Horvath erected his genus Pentaphis 
with marginata Koch as a type, while Del Guercio in 1909 used 
trivialis Pass, as the type of a genus of the same name. Specimens 
of marginata Koch from Horvath prove that this species in every 
respect is similar to the type of the genus. Pentaphis, therefore, will 
become a synonym of Forda. Likewise specimens of trivialis show 
that this species belongs in the same genus. In 1841 Hartig erected 
the genus Rhizoterus, the type of which is vacca. According to 
Lichtenstein this species is a synonym of formicaria Heyden, and 
Rhizoterus also, then, becomes a synonym. 
In 1914 Theobald erected his genus Rectinasus with his buxtoni 
as type. He based his genus on the proportions of the antennal 
segments, their length, and the length of the beak. The writer is 
opposed to basing genera on the proportions of the antennal segments, 
for in species in which these are of different proportions a very close 
relationship is evident. This is also true of the beak. Many Ameri- 
can species taken in ants' nests and as yet undescribed have beaks 
ranging from small to longer than the body, but they are all evidently 
