THE POXERIXE ANTS. 233 



isolated females. I had previously reached this conclusion from a study 

 of Poncra and Stiymatomma, but later, on finding an incipient colony 

 of Odontomachns darns in Texas and several isolated females of O. 

 hamatodcs in cells under stones in the West Indies, I concluded that 

 the Ponerinae probably resemble the great majority of ants in their 

 method of founding colonies. That Mynnecia has a nuptial flight is 

 shown by the passage quoted from Tepper (p. 230). A proneness to 

 subdivision of colonies as in the case observed by Cook would account 

 for the small number of ants found in the nests of most Ponerinae and 

 may, perhaps, as in some of the higher ants, coexist with the formation 

 of colonies by isolated females. 



The Ponerinae are eminently entomophagous. Ectat'omma tnbcr- 

 culatum, according to Cook, also visits the extrafloral nectaries of 

 plants, but none of the species is known to attend aphids, garner seeds, 

 or raise fungi. There is, however, a marked specialization in diet in 

 certain species. I have shown that the Texan Lobopclta clongata (Fig. 

 137) feeds mainly, if not ex- 

 clusively, on land-isopods, or 

 slaters, and certain species of 

 Lcptogcnys, Lobopelta, Oph- 

 thabnopone and Diacamma are 

 much given to preying on ter- 

 mites. I have never seen any 

 of our North American Po- 

 nerinae feed one another by 

 regurgitation, but Cook's obser- 

 vations on Ectatomma tnbcr- 



FIG. 132. Worker of Dinoponera grandis 



culatum leave little doubt that O f Brazil. (Sharp.) 



this ant practices a similar, if 



not identical, method of distributing ingluvial food to different mem- 

 bers of the colony. 



The great differences between the various tribes of Ponerine ants 

 are reflected in the structure of their larvae. At least three different 

 types may be distinguished among the species that have been studied by 

 Emery (1899?) and myself (1900/7, 1900*?, 19031', 1907^) : 



1. Smooth, thickset larvae, with short, sparse hairs and peculiar 

 impaired tubercles on the midventral surface of some of the abdominal 

 segments (Platythyrea}. 



2. Smooth, slender larvae, with a rather dense covering of hairs 

 (Myrmecia, Stiginatonnna, Parasyscia, Ectatomma). 



3. Larvae furnished with rows of tubercles which may be pointed 

 or boss-like, tipped or merely encircled with stout hairs (Pach\cond\la. 



