Oecodoma aspersa

Smith, F., 1858, Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae., London: British Museum : 185

10. OECODOMA ASPERSA . Pl. X. fig. 17. B.M.

Female. Length 3 1/2 lines. - Brown-black: the head and abdo- men roughened, covered with short sharp spines; the mandibles, scape, sides of the face, its anterior margin, the carinae between the antennae and the spines on the vertex, ferruginous. Thorax ovate, with two bright ferruginous longitudinal lines on the meso- thorax; the scutellum and post-scutellum ferruginous; a straight, stout, acute spine on each side of the thorax in front, and two longer bent acute ones on the metathorax, ferruginous; wings yellowish hyaline, the nervures pale ferruginous; the legs of moderate length, roughened with short spines and stiff hairs. Abdomen: the first node armed with a stout blunt spine on each side; the second node with numerous short spines on each side, the sides red; the first segment flattened towards the base, which has a ferruginous spot on each side; the apical margins of the seg- ments more or less ferruginous.

Hab. Brazil.

The close resemblance between this species and O. e hystrix leaves little doubt of the latter being the worker of the present species; the neuration of the wings of aspersa is somewhat different to the typical form of Oe. cephalotes , and it might be desirable to form a subgenus for its reception; for the present, we retain them as a section only.