8. Ponera geometrica ^HNS.

P. nigro-aenea; capite, thorace abdominisque basi profunde striatis, nodo spinis duabus acutis armato.

Worker. Length 5 lines. Black, with more or less of a bronze tint: the head longitudinally striated; the clypeus angulated in front; the mandibles ferruginous. Thorax: rounded anteriorly; the disk in front transversely striated, these striae encircled by others which pass round the sides and front; the thorax beyond with a striatum, which runs in an elongated oval direction, the sides obliquely striated; the legs very obscurely ferruginous. Abdomen: the node incrassate, rounded in front and above, truncated behind; the margin of the truncation deeply emarginate, the lateral angles of the emargination produced into long stout acute spines; the node with a curved striation, the curve being forwards; the first segment with a beautiful even curved striation; the apical segments smooth and shining, covered with a cinereous silky pubescence.

Hab. Singapore.

This species resembles the P. versicolor ^HNS, but is much more regularly and evenly striated; the striation on P. versicolor ^HNS is coarse and uneven, and directed differently on the thorax; the joints of the antennae in this species are also longer and more slender. T. C. Jerdon has described a striated species of Ponera ^HNS, but he says, " abdominal pedicle raised, pointing forwards with two small spines "- which does not agree with any of the insects here described.