144. Formica decora ^HNS.

Female. Length 3 1/4 lines.-Black: the abdomen with a creamcoloured spot on each side of the second and third segments at their base. Head a little wider than the thorax, oblong, subquadrate; eyes rather large, ovate; mandibles ferruginous; antennae dark rufo-fuscous. Thorax narrow, elongate-ovate; wings wanting; the apex of the coxae and trochanters pale testaceous yellow; the apical joints of the tarsi ferruginous. Abdomen elongate-ovate; the pale spots at the base of the second and third segments subtriangular, the apical margins of the segments thinly ciliated with glittering white hairs.

Hab. Brazil. (Coll. D. Swainson, Esq.)