64 WHEELER. [VOL. II. 



Careful search in and about the natural nests of Stigma- 

 tomma failed to reveal the presence of any myrmecophiles. 

 Wasmann, however, mentions 1 a Pselaphid beetle, Araniops 

 amblyoponica Brend., as occurring with these ants in Pennsyl- 

 vania and North Carolina. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



The foregoing observations on Ponera and Stigmatomma, 

 together with those contained in my former paper, suggest 

 some considerations of a more general nature. 



First, the appearance of the larva of Stigmatomma, differing 

 so widely from the known larvae of other Ponerinae, is calcu- 

 lated to raise some doubts on the subject of taxonomy. Forel 2 

 has been of the opinion that the group of genera including 

 and allied to Amblyopone, viz., Stigmatomma, Mystrium, Priono- 

 pelta, and Myopopone, should be separated from the Ponerinae 

 as an independent subfamily, the Amblyoponinae. The main 

 characters used as an argument for this change are the presence 

 of two spurs on the hind tibia of these ants, and the very 

 broad and peculiar articulation of the node with the succeed- 

 ing abdominal segment. Emery, on the other hand, 3 has pro- 

 tested against raising this group to the rank of a subfamily 

 and its separation from the Ponerinae. 4 He argues that double 

 spurs occur also on the hind tibiae of nearly all Ponerinae 

 and of several Myrmicinae as well, that the articulation of the 

 node is highly variable among the Ponerinae, and that the 

 Cerapachyi (which Emery insists on placing with the Dory- 

 linae) present the same conditions of the node as in Amblyo- 

 pone. He also calls attention 5 to the important fact that the 



1 I.oc. cit., p. 94. 



Sur la classification de la famille des Formicides," Annales de la. Soc. 



Tome xxxvii, pp. 161-165. 1893. 



" Die Gattung Dorylus Fab. und die systematische Eintheilung der Formi- 

 Abth. f. System. Bd. viii, pp. 685-778, Taf. XIV-XVII, 

 41 text-figs. 1895. 



" Die Abtheilung der Amblyoponinae darf nach meiner Ansicht nur als Tribus 

 in der Subfamilie der Ponerinen beibehalten werden." 

 5 Loc. at., p. 694, footnote. 



