MAXX: AXTS OF THE FIJI ISLANDS. 403 



The Ant Fauna. 



The study of Fijian ants has a short history. In 1866 ]Mayr (Sitz. 

 Akad. wiss. Wien, 1866, 53, p. 484-518) described Odonlomachus angu- 

 latus, Phcidolc occanica, Cardiocondyla nuda, Camponotus cristatus, 

 C. laminaius, C. schmeltzii, and C. dcntatus. In 1870 (Verh. Zool. 

 hot. gesellsch. ^Yien, 1870, 20, p. 939-996) the same author described 

 Phcidolc umbonata, Camponotus (Colobopsis) occanicus, and C. carinafus 

 and noted C. riififrons F. Smith from Ovalau. These eleven species 

 were all taken on Ovalau and ^Slayr described his species from speci- 

 mens in the Godeil'roy Museum. 



In the present paper seventy-eight species belonging to twenty-six 

 genera are listed and two genera are described as new. In addition 

 to these there are in the collection several species of Prenolepis and 

 Pheidole which I have not been able to identify, as the males or soldiers 

 were not found. 



As Turner (Trans. Ent. soc. London, 1918, p. 333-346) has recently 

 listed only fifty-three species of Hymenoptera from Fiji, among which 

 are included no species of such widely distributed and extensive 

 families as the Mutillidae, Proctotrypidae, Cynipidae, and Tenthre- 

 dinidae, it will be seen that the insect fauna of Fiji has been almost 

 entirely neglected. 



In the Lau Archipelago, on Kabara and Waquava, where native 

 forests still exist, I found two species of Camponotus belonging to the 

 strictly Fijian subgenus ]Myrmegonia. Strumigcnys (Ccphaloxys) viti- 

 ensis, sp. nov. was taken on Kabara and Pheidole umbonata Mayr 

 was found to be abundant on Vanua Mbalavu, Munia and Tuvuca. 

 Phcidolc mcgaccphala Fabr. and Solcnopsis gcminata riija Jerd. are not 

 among my material. Their absence is one of the few interesting fea- 

 tures of the Lau fauna. Besides these, Lau yielded only "tramp" 

 species found in similar localities the world over. On Lakeba, one 

 of the oldest of the islands, I wandered for weary days over the eroded 

 red clay hills, searching for specimens in the sparse forests of Casuari- 

 nas and Pandanus palms and found almost nothing. So, when on 

 the beach at INIunia I saw the trunk of a large sago-palm that must 

 have floated from at least as far as TaAiuni, the nearest natural habitat 

 of these Cycads, it was easy to imagine such a log as having originally 

 brought to the Archipelago the nucleus of its entire land fauna. 

 However, the general aspects of animal life in Lau are the same as on 

 the larger islands, though very much limited by ecological conditions. 

 On Vanua Levu, which is rich in endemic Fijian forms, when I collected 



