17. Polyrhachis textor ^HNS. Pl. I. fig. 2. B.M.

Worker. Length 3 1/3 lines.-Black: the head delicately rugulose; the eyes ovate, lateral, and placed high on the head; the front with two raised bent carinae, at the sides of which the antennae are inserted; the clypeus and the space between the antennae rufo-piceous, the former with a slight longitudinal central carina; the mandibles obscurely rufo-piceous at their apex; the apical joint of the antennas ferruginous. Thorax elongate, compressed at the sides and flattened above; the anterior portion longitudinally aciculate, the meso- and metathorax delicately rugulose; the prothorax with a short blunt tooth or spine on each side; the metathorax has also a minute tooth at the lateral superior angles; legs elongate, without spines or hairs, the tips of the claw-joints of the tarsi ferruginous. Abdomen smooth, highly polished; the scale of the peduncle with a single acute spine above, and a minute one on each side at its base.

Hab. Malacca. (Coll. W. W. Saunders, Esq.)

The nest of this species is figured in Pl. II. fig. 2.