Ponera pestilentia

Smith, F., 1858, Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae., London: British Museum : 92

33. Ponera pestilentia . B.M.

Worker. Length 5 1/2 -6 1/2 lines.-Black: the head longitudinally and finely striated; the mandibles large, shining, somewhat elongate, their inner edge serrated irregularly with minute and larger teeth, delicately striated, and with a few scattered punctures; the extreme apex of the antenna rufo-piceous. Thorax: the pro- and mesothorax longitudinally striated, the striation on the former curved anteriorly; the metathorax transversely striated; the legs more or less obscurely ferruginous, nearly black, with the apical joints of the tarsi usually dark rufo-piceous, the calcaria pale rufo-testaceous, the anterior tarsi clothed with ferruginous pubescence beneath. Abdomen oblong; the first segment truncated at the base, narrower than the second segment and slightly strangulated at the apex; the first segment is pinched at the base beneath into a sharp carina and furnished with a short spine; the peduncle elevated, subcylindrical, and rounded or blunt at its apex above.

Hab. Sierra Leone. (Coll. Rev. D. F. Morgan.)