196. Formica esuriens. B.M. Worker major. Length 4 lines.-Head, thorax, legs, and scale of the abdomen, ferruginous; abdomen nigro-fuscous. Head very large, much wider than the thorax, deeply excavated behind; the clypeus with a central longitudinal carina, its anterior margin with a broad shallow notch; the mandibles of a darker colour than the head, the scape blackish, the flagellum red. The. thorax paler than the head, narrowed behind; the apex of the metathorax oblique; the tibiae and tarsi slightly fuscous. Abdomen ovate, the base more or less ferruginous; the entire insect thinly sprinkled with long erect ferruginous hairs; the scale compressed, narrow, its margin entire. Worker minor. Length 3 lines.-Of the same colour as the larger worker; the head proportionably narrower, more elongatequadrate; otherwise, the same as the larger form. Hab. Mexico. This species closely resembles F. integra, but is at once distinguished by the form of the scale of the peduncle.

Published as part of Smith, F., 1858, Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae., London :British Museum on pages 54-55