282 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Promesothorax in profile slightly convex ; from above, narrowest behind, broad- 

 est in front of middle, with rounded sides and anterior border. Promesonotal 

 suture obsolete. Mesoepinotal suture barely discernible. Base of epinotum 

 quadrangular, nearly as broad as long, with straight sides, the surface convex ; 

 declivity flat, with slightly margined sides. Petiole more than twice as broad 

 as long, narrowest in front, in profile deeper than long, rounded above. First 

 gastric segment twice as broad as petiole; a little longer than the second 

 segment. Legs stout. 



Head, thorax, petiole, and gaster sublucid, densely pitted with coarse 

 irregular foveae which are narrowly separated, so that the body has a reticu- 

 late appearance; clypeus longitudinally striate. Epinotum strigose with 

 fewer foveae; declivity smooth and shining. Meso- and metapleurae coarsely, 

 irregularly strigose. Mandibles coarsely punctate, shining. Antennae and 

 legs sublucid, finely punctate. 



Antennae pubescent. Head and body with fine erect pile. Color dark 

 fuscous. Antennae, mandibles, and legs ferruginous. Pilosity white. 



Malaita: x\uki. 



Described from workers taken from beneath the bark of a dead tree. 

 Type.—M. C. Z. 9,153. 



This form approaches R. epinotalis Emery from New Guinea, but 

 in that species the petiole is not punctate and the third abdominal seg- 

 ment is subtly punctate. In malarusis, the petiole is coarsely punctate, 

 and the third abdominal segment is as coarsely so as the second. It 

 differs also in having denticles, though very small ones, on the mandibu- 

 lar blades. Possibly it should be considered merely a subspecies of 

 ciyinotalis. 



The larva is slender, not tuberculate, and uniformly covered with 

 long white hairs, which become fine and flexuous anteriorly, similar 

 to the larvae of Stigmatomma. 



The pupae are light fuscous in color. 



Wheeleripone, gen. nov. 



Tyjye. — W. albiclava, sp. nov. 

 Worker. Allied to Stictoponera Mayr. 



Head moderately elongate. Mandibles elongate, triangular, with small 

 teeth on inner border. Frontal lobes small, feebly prominent and widely 

 separated. Clypeus strongly depressed anteriorly and broadly rounded, 

 separated from front by a feeble suture. Eyes prominent and convex, though 



