THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



XIII. — Observations on the Genus Typhlopone, with descrip- 

 tions of several exotic species of Ants. By J. O. West- 

 wood, F.L.S. 



[With a Plate.] 



Having in my c Introduction to the Modern Classification 

 of Insects' figured an insect from the collection of C. C. Ba- 

 bington, Esq., under the name of Typhlopone fulva, and which, 

 without hesitation, I considered to be a neuter Ant*, it be- 

 comes necessary, — now that Mr. Shuckard has, in a previous 

 page of these Annals, stated his conviction that it is the 

 female of a genus belonging to another family, in which 

 neuters do not exist, — that I should give my reasons for the 

 opinion I have advanced, that it belongs to the family of the 

 Ants, and is a neuter insect, and which I still retain. 



Ignorant although we are of the males of this genus, it is not 

 only upon a comparison of known individuals of Typhlopone 

 with the females and neuters of the Ants, and witli the females 

 of the Mutillidce, that I found my opinion ; we are now ac- 

 quainted with four facts relative to the habits of these insects. 

 1st, One of Mr. Shuckard's specimens is stated by him still to 

 retain within its jaws the wing of a Termes. 2ndly, Another, 

 of which the head alone remained, had attacked and pertina- 

 ciously retained hold of the leg of an ant, which had evidently 

 pulled off the body of the Typhlopone, in order to rid itself of 

 its incumbrance. 3rdly, Mr. Raddon has obtained many 

 specimens of Typhlopone, found alive in casks of sugar from 

 the West Indies. And 4thly, Mr. Babington's three speci- 

 mens were also found in sugar. Now these are circumstances 



* I have in this paper continued to employ the term ' neuter' for the abor- 

 tive sex of the Heterogyna and other social Hymenoptera, although it is 

 certainly improper, such individuals being, in fact, females, with partially 

 developed female organs. The term ' worker', which has also been applied to 

 them, is not exclusively their own, because the real productive females, 

 amongst the humble-bees and wasps, work as much as the so-called 'neuters'. 

 It would perhaps be better to term them 'pseudo-females.' 



Ann. §• Mag. Nat. Hist. Oct. 1840. g 



