Formica rufipes

Smith, F., 1858, Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae., London: British Museum : 43-44

146. Formica rufipes . B.M.

Formica rufipes, Fabr. Syst. Ent. 391. 4; Ent. Syst. ii. 350. 4;

Syst. Piez. 398. 7, and Mus. Dom. Banks. ([[worker]] major).

Oliv. Encycl. Meth. vi. 491.

Latr. Hist. Nat. Fourm. 110.

St. Farg. Hym. i. 215. 20.

Hab. Brazil,

The typical specimen of this species in the Banksian Collection is the " worker major;" the small worker differs in size as well as form.

Worker major. Length 5 1/2 lines.-Black: opake and thinly sprinkled with ferruginous hairs; head cordate, twice the width of the thorax, the mandibles armed with six stout teeth; the thorax and head of equal length, the former rounded in front and much compressed behind; the legs ferruginous, the tips of the joints and the three basal joints of the tarsi dusky; the scale of the peduncle ovate; the abdomen ovate, with the margins of the segments rufo-testaceous.

Worker minor. Length 3 lines.-Resembles the larger worker in colour, but has the head proportionately more elongate and narrow; the scale is narrower; the colour of the flagellum differs in being more or less ferruginous, sometimes entirely dusky.

The female is of the same colour as the workers; the head is very little wider than the thorax, the latter being elongate-ovate; the scale is emarginate above; the legs are shorter and rather stouter.