THE HISTORY Ol : MYRMECOLOGY. 



without spines on the thorax. Neither Linne nor Fabricius seems to 

 have paid much attention to the habits of the ants. 



The third and by far the most important of the pioneers in myr- 

 mecography was Latreille (17986, 18026). He collected the ants of 

 Europe, studied their habits assiduously and described many species 

 that had been overlooked by his predecessors, including a number of in- 

 teresting forms. He produced good descriptions of nearly a hundred 

 species which he had himself examined. All of these he placed in the 

 single genus Formica which he divided into nine " families": the For- 

 iniccc ai'cnatic (corresponding to our present genera Camponotus and 

 Po/yr/uicliis) , canieliiKc (our Formica, Lasius, Mynnccocystus, (Eco- 

 phyl/a and Dolichoderus in part), atomaricc (our Dolichoderus in part, 

 Tapinoma and Acantliolepis}, ambig'iur (Polyergns], chclatcc (Odonto- 

 inac!>its), coorctatcc (Poncra, Pacliycondyla, Neoponcra, Ectatomma, 

 Mynuccia, etc.), gibboscu 

 (.-Ittct, Phcidolc, Messor, 

 P ogono m y r m c x , etc. ) , 

 piinctorifc (Eciton, Myr- 

 mica. Tetraiiwrinin, Myr- 

 mccina, Lcptothora.r, Sole- 

 no [>sis, etc.) and capcratcc 

 ( Ci-ypfoccnts, (Ecophylla }. 

 It is impossible to run over 

 this arrangement without 

 admiring Latreille's acu- 

 men in so clearly forecasting the limits of many of our modern sub- 

 families, tribes and genera. 



For nearly fifty years after the publication of Latreille's work sys- 

 tematic myrmecology stagnated, till a revival of interest in the subject 

 began to set in about the middle of the past century with the work of 

 Xylander and Mayr. Both of these authors devoted themselves to a 

 careful study of the European species, Nylander to the boreal, French 

 and Mediterranean, and Mayr to the Austrian and eventually to the 

 whole European fauna. Both authors, but especially Mayr, defined 

 the genera and species more accurately than any of their prede- 

 cessors. Later Mayr extended his studies to the faunas of foreign 

 countries and published several important works on the ants of Asia, 

 Africa, Australia, and North and South America. Forel, in comment- 

 ing on his work says : " His remarkable perspicacity in creating genera, 

 and in general in the distinction of the comparative value of zoological 

 characters, and the minute exactitude of all his writings, which repre- 

 sent a vast amount of labor, have raised myrmecology to the rank of 



FIG. 69. Worker of Apha-nogaster beccarii of 

 the Indomalayan region. (Bingham.) 



