97.. Formica virescens ^HNS. Pl. III. figs. 24-27. B.M.

Formica virescens, Fabr. ^HNS Syst. Eut. 392. 9 [[worker]]; Spec. Ins. i. 490.

13; Mant. Ins. i. 308. 16; Ent. Syst. ii. 355. 23; and Cab.

Mus. Dom. Banks.

Oliv. Encycl. Meth. vi. 494. 20.

Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Ins. ii. 2800. 32.

Formica longinoda, Latr. ^HNS Hist. Nat. Fourm. 184 [[worker]].

Lasius virescens, Fabr. ^HNS Syst. Piez. 417. 8,

Formica macra, Guer. ^HNS Voy. Coq. Zool. ii. 202; Atlas, t. 8. f. 1,

1 a, 1 b [[worker]].

This species we consider to be the African and Australian representative of the F. smaragdina ^HNS; the species is rather smaller, the female has shorter wings, the nervures blacker, and with a fuscous stain along their course; it also differs from F. smaragdina in having the scale or node of the abdomen rather longer, and in its being elevated anteriorly. The worker of F. virescens ^HNS has the head more convex behind the eyes than in F. smaragdina ^HNS, and the petiole of the abdomen is shorter, and of a somewhat different form.

The male of F. virescens ^HNS is 3 lines in length, of a pale rufo-testaceous colour, varying in depth in different specimens, and is covered with short thin pale pubescence; the head with the vertex subquadrate, slightly narrowed posteriorly, with the angles rounded; the eyes larger than in the female; the first joint of the flagellum clavate, nearly as long as the two following, the rest being subovate and of nearly equal length. Thorax subovate, narrowed posteriorly; the wings ample, hyaline, with the nervures ferruginous. The legs very slender and elongate. Abdomen rounded, the petiole narrowed at the base.

Hab. Africa; Australia.