1 86 WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. 



to the description: "This is a very remarkable insect; for inde- 

 pendent of the enormously developed eyes and produced clypeus, 

 the palpi are elongated to half the length of the thorax, the max- 

 illary are six-, and the labial four-jointed. Mr. Bates says : 

 ' This curious solitary ant is never seen by more than one at a 

 time, prowling about fallen leaves, etc., in the forest ; I have never 

 seen its formicarium and, from its solitary habits, have no clue to 

 guide me in looking for it." Perhaps Smith was confirmed in his 

 choice of the specific name by the monastic or ascetic appearance 

 of the insect, its somber black livery, relieved only by the golden- 

 yellow tips of its antennae, its long, emaciated limbs and its huge 

 eyes, perpetually dilated as if in astonishment and chagrin at the 

 indecent behavior of other insects. 



Two short notes, however, by later observers indicate that 

 Gigantiops may be neither an insatiable assassin nor a humble 

 anchorite, but a harmless and perhaps rather frivolous creature, 

 that may have become permanently goggle-eyed through an age- 

 long endeavor to enjoy to the full the riotous beauties of its en- 

 vironment. Emery ('93) was informed by Albert Schulz that the 

 " Brazilian ant, Gigantiops destructor Fabr., which is distinguished 

 by its enormous eyes, leaps from twig to twig, like the Odonto- 

 uiachus hatmaiodes living in the same places," and Mann (1916) 

 says : " In life this is one of the most attractive ants encountered. 

 It lives always in the forest, where it forages either among the 

 branches of trees or on the ground. The movements of the forag- 

 ing worker are rapid, comparable to some of our species of Cicin- 

 dela, and the bicolored antennae are kept constantly in motion." 



Roger ('63) was the first to throw Smith's Formica solitaria 

 into the synonymy and to establish the peculiar genus Gigantiops. 

 In more recent myrmecological literature mention of the insect 

 recurs sporadically and at long intervals, showing that it was rarely 

 seen in the many collections of South American ants examined by 

 Mayr, Forel, Emery, Santschi, and others. Its known range, as 

 indicated by the literature and by specimens in my collection, is 

 as follows : 



Brazil: Ega (Bates) ; Para (E. Goeldi, ex coll. Forel) ; Maran- 

 hao (Ducke) ; Para, Abuna, Porto Velho, and Madeira-Mamore 

 R. R. (W. M. Mann). 



