Plectroctena mandibularis

Smith, F., 1858, Catalogue of the hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae., London: British Museum : 101-102

1. Plectroctena mandibularis . Pl. VII. figs. 1-5. B.M.

Worker. Length 5-7 lines.-Shining black: delicately and not very closely punctured; an impressed line runs upwards from the anterior margin of the elevation between the antennae, halfway towards the vertex; the mandibles grooved longitudinally. Thorax oblong, rounded in front, slightly narrowed and obliquely truncated posteriorly, finely punctured, and the sides delicately striated; the tarsi with a fulvous pubescence, the anterior pair densely pubescent beneath. Abdomen: the first segment finely punctured, the node of the peduncle incrassate, subglobose and finely punctured.

Male. Length 4 lines. -Black: the apex of the abdomen ferruginous; head narrower than the thorax, transverse, with the vertex slightly narrowed behind the eyes; shining and delicately punctured; the antennae inserted in front of two elevated processes, the clypeus widely emarginate; mandibles short, not toothed and blunt at their apex. Thorax rugose, the disk with a mixture of confluent punctures and striae; the mesothorax with two deeply impressed oblique channels running inwards and uniting at the base of the scutellum; the wings subhyaline and iridescent, the nervures testaceous, the stigma fuscous. Abdomen: the three apical segments ferruginous, of the same form as in the female, the node of the petiole also similar. The worker not known.

Hab. Port Natal.

The sexes, taken in coitu by Herr Gueinzius, have been received from Port Natal; he says, " solitary; I have not been able to find its nest."