Attini
From Smith, (1858) [1]
The number of joints in the maxillary palpi varying from 4 to 2, those of the labial palpi from 3 to 2; the ocelli usually obsolete in the workers, some species of the large workers furnished with a single ocellus ; the petiole of the abdomen formed of two nodes, females and workers having a sting. The colonies of the different genera and species consisting of males, females, large and small workers; the large workers with enormously enlarged
heads, those of the small workers of the ordinary size.
Maxillary palpi 4-jointed, labial palpi 3—jointed; autennm l2— jointed in the female and worker, l3 jointed in the male. Wings longer than the body, with one marginal and three submarginal cells, the third sometimes incomplete; the second submarginal cell bell-shaped, the nervure at its apex uniting with that at the base of the marginal cell. Abdomen with two nodes in the petiole ; the large workers usually with enormously developed heads, the small workers with heads of the ordinary size. It is very probable, that were the palpi of all the species included in this catalogue examined, they would not agree in the number of joints given in the generic characters of Atta, and at a future time it may be necessary to remove some into the genus Solenopsis, or to establish new genera for their reception; it will be observed that in many instances only one sex has been examined, and frequently only single examples; we have therefore included in the present genus all those forms which appear to have a close relations ip to the type, Formica barbara of Linnmus.
References
- , Catalogue of hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Formicidae. London: British Museum, 216 pp., vol. VI. PORTUGAL (Madeira Is.). Afrotropic. "Portugal (Madeira Is.), coll. : T.V. Wollaston Natural History Museum, London, U.K., 1858, p. 216.
