No. 2.] HABITS OF POA'ERA AND STluMATOMMA. 6 1 



nor can this be readily done by ants with such huge, horizontally 

 projecting mandibles. 



Stigmatomma has a singular habit of vigorously shaking its 

 body from time to time, as if suffering with the ague. The 

 motion is not unlike that of the Termites when they are sup- 

 posed to be stridulating. It is possible that the action of the 

 Ponerine may produce a sound through the rubbing of the 

 various segments and 

 joints on one another, but, 

 though perfectly familiar 

 with the sounds produced 

 by the large Myrmicines 

 Pogonomyrmex and Atta, 

 I have not been able to 

 detect them in Stignia- 

 tomma. 



What I have said con- 

 cerning the habits of 

 cleanliness in P '. coarctata 

 applies also to the species 

 under consideration. 



The eggs of Stigma- 

 tomma, though deposited 

 by a larger insect, are 

 smaller than those of P. 

 coarctata, being only .5 

 mm. long. They are, how- 

 ever, more numerous. A packet deposited by a female in one 

 of my artificial nests contained thirteen eggs. In shape they 

 are oblong elliptical, like the eggs of other Ponerinae. They 

 are not arranged with their long axes parallel with one another, 

 as in Pachycondyla and Leptogenys, but in an irregular mass, 

 like the eggs of all the other subfamilies of ants, including the 

 Dorylinae (Ecitoii). 



The larva has the appearance of Fig. 8, a. The body is 

 rather slender in alcoholic specimens, and the segments are 

 all quite distinct and clothed rather uniformly and densely 

 with yellowish hairs, which under a high power (Fig. 8, b} are 



FIG. 8. a, mature larva of Stigmatomma pallifes 

 Haldem ; b, bristle of same ; c, head of same (dor- 

 sal aspect). 



