131. Formica piliventris ^HNS. B.M.

Worker. Length 5 1/2 lines.-Very variable in colour: head obscurely black; thorax, legs and abdomen black, or with the head and the thorax obscurely red; sometimes black with only the legs red. Head large, much wider than the thorax, the mandibles with coarse longitudinal irregular striae; the clypeus subcarinate; the head and thorax very delicately shagreened; the thorax rounded in front, much compressed behind, with the metathorax obliquely truncated. Abdomen obscurely cupreous and clothed with a short pale golden pubescence; the scale narrow, incrassate, narrowed to the upper margin, which is very faintly notched.

Hab. South Australia.