68 WHEELER. [Vou II. 



d'elles. Toutefois, cette maniere de prendre la nourriture doit 

 etre considered comme tout a fait exceptionelle." 



The fact that this peculiar method of feeding the larvae is 

 the only method adopted by the Ponerinae, and, I believe, also 

 by the Myrmicine Stenamma fnlvum, and that it occurs as an 

 exception in such highly specialized ants as Lasius and Tctra- 

 moriiim, is of considerable interest from the standpoint of the 

 phylogeny of instincts. It not only spans a gap between the 

 generalized Ponerinae and the more specialized Formicinae, but 

 it would seem to indicate that the method of feeding the larvae 

 by regurgitation was grafted on to this original method in the 

 more recent ants, possibly in connection with their habit of feed- 

 ing one another by regurgitation in their adult conditions. 1 



In conclusion, the various peculiarities which indicate that 

 the Ponerinae are a very primitive and generalized subfamily 

 of ants may be enumerated 2 : 



1. The colonies of the Ponerinae consist of a comparatively 

 small number of ants, like the incipient colonies of the Myrmi- 

 cinae, Dolichoderinae, and Formicinae. 



2. These small colonies appear to be annual growths, formed 

 by swarming, as in the bees, and not by single fertilized female 

 ants unaccompanied by workers, as in the above-mentioned 

 subfamilies. 



3. Two or more colonies of Ponerinae of the same species 

 can be fused to form a larger colony without much difficulty. 

 This is not so easily accomplished with many species of the 

 more specialized ants. 



1 Since completing my manuscript I find that one of our Texan Myrmicine ants 

 (Pheidole sp. near P. fabricator Smith) resembles Stenamma fulvum in its manner 

 of feeding the larvae. September 27 I opened a small nest of the Pheidole near 

 Austin and found dozens of larvae feeding on fragments of different insects col- 

 lected and comminuted by the workers. This is of interest because the Pheidole, 

 like its congeners, is a harvesting ant, storing the large flat chambers of its nest 

 with many seeds. 



2 While I have assumed in this and in my former paper that the Ponerinae 

 may be regarded as the group from which the Myrmicinae, Dolichoderinae, and 

 Formicinae (Camponotinae) have developed, I am quite of Emery's opinion that 

 the existing Ponerinae are not ancestral forms. Emery calls attention to the fact 

 that the palpi are aborted in all the tribes of Ponerinae except the Myrmecii, 

 whereas many of the genera of higher ants have retained the undiminished num- 

 ber of joints in these organs. 



