154. Formica sericeiventris. B.M.

Formica sericeiventris, Guer. Voy. de la Coq, Zool. ii. 205 [[worker]].

Formica cuneata. Perty, Del. An. Art. p. 134. t. 27.1 [[worker]].

Hab. Rio Janeiro (Constancia); Columbia; Brazil; Mexico.

The descriptions of Guerin and Perty are of the large form of the worker; the female is from 8 to 10 lines long, and differs from the worker major in having the thorax oblong-ovate and broader in proportion to the head; in having ocelli which are small and placed rather forward, the anterior ocellus being in a line with the vertex of the eyes; the wings are subhyaline, their nervures ferruginous; the scale of the peduncle is subquadrate, its upper margin notched in the middle; on each side of the notch it is rounded, and the lateral angles are produced into short spines. We have seen, from the collection of Mr. Swainson, an ant which we suppose to be the small form of the worker; it differs from the large form in having the head narrower, the antennae and mandibles, as well as the clypeus anteriorly and the apical joints of the tarsi, ferruginous; in other respects it closely resembles the large worker.