wheeler: AUSTRALIAN ANTS. 49 



the long phylogenetic history of the ponerine subfamily. It is also 

 pi'obable that the very similar " diehthadiif orm " females of the ants 

 belonging to the subfamily Dorylinae have had a like independent 

 origin and development. 



The larva of Onj^ehomyrmex (Plate 1, fig. 7; Plate 2, fig. 1, 2), in 

 the very distinct segmentation of the body and in the structure of 

 the head, seems to be of a rather primitive type and resembles the 

 larvae of the Dorylinae (Eciton) and lower Ponerinae (Acanthostichus, 

 Cerapachys), but the larvae of ants have not been sufficiently studied 

 to enable us to draw satisfactory conclusions concerning the phylo- 

 genetic relationships of the various genera. 



A study of the worker Onychomyrmex certainly reveals a number 

 of highly specialized characters. Such are particularly the shape of 

 the mandibles, the vestigial condition of the palpi, the small size of the 

 eyes, and the enlargement of the terminal joint, claws, and pulvilli of 

 the middle and hind tarsi. The degenerate visual organs show that 

 these ants belong to the hypogaeic series and that they pass their lives 

 concealed in the logs which gradually decompose in the moist shade 

 of the dense tropical jungle. The powerful, toothed mandibles, long 

 sting and great hooked claws indicate that their possessors do not feed 

 habitually on small feeble insects like termites, but on much larger 

 creatures such as the larvae of passalids and scarabaeids and possibly 

 on adult myriopods and scorpions. This I found to be the case in a 

 colony of 0. mjobcrgi, for when the log containing it was broken open, 

 many of the workers were detected in the act of biting and stinging to 

 death a huge lamellicorn beetle larva more than two inches in length, 

 which they had just found in a cavity in the wood. It is not improba- 

 ble that the colonies move from place to place in search of their prey, 

 like the colonies of the subterranean Dorylinae (Eciton coecuvi and 

 Dorylus), which the}' very closely resemble in behavior, color, sculp- 

 ture, and pilosity. 



The species of Onychomyrmex are far from common even in Queens- 

 land, and the few colonies I secured were the reward of many hours of 

 search and of the destruction of many old logs in places where I was 

 frequently attacked by land-leeches and saw quite a number of the 

 deadly black snakes (Pseudechis porphyriacus) . Perhaps it would be 

 possible for the collector to attract colonies by placing large beetle or 

 cossid larvae in holes in the rotten logs usually found along the paths 

 through the " scrub." 



