THE AUSTRALIAN HONEY-ANTS OF THE GENUS 

 LEPTOMYRMEX MAYR.^ 



By William Morton Wheeler. 



Received, May 6, 1915. 



Little study has been devoted, either by the European systematists 

 or the field naturahsts of Australia, to the singular ants of the genus 

 Leptomyrmex. I have therefore undertaken to record such observa- 

 tions as I was able to make on these fascinating insects during a brief 

 visit to New South Wales and Queensland in the latter part of 1914, 

 and at the same time to summarize what was previously known about 

 them from the scattered sources, in the hope that some of my ento- 

 mologist friends in Australia may be induced to make a more exhaus- 

 tive study. The species of Leptomyrmex, unlike so many Australian 

 ants, are perfectly harmless and would, no doubt, live well in artificial 

 nests of rather simple construction. The entomologist who could 

 devote a little patient study to these insects under such conditions 

 would unquestionably be rewarded by obtaining answers to some if 

 not to all of the questions suggested in the following pages. 



The worker Leptomyrmex is easily recognized by the extraordinary 

 attenuation and elongation of all parts of the body, except the abdo- 

 men. Curiously enough, both the petiole and the gaster show only a 

 slight tendency to elongation, in marked contrast with the very slender 

 legs and antennpe. Emery ^ regards the genus as constituting by 

 itself one of the four tribes of the subfamily Dolichoderinse, the princi- 

 pal distinctive characters being the great attenuation of the head, 

 thorax and appendages, the rather soft and flexible integument, the 

 peculiar structure of the proventriculus, the distinct separation of the 

 antennary and clypeal fossae, and the very aberrant venation of the 

 fore wings of the male. 



The proventriculus of L. erythroerphalus has been studied by both 

 Forel and Emery. The former figures the organ in toto, the latter 



1 Contributions from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Institu- 

 tion, Harvard University, No. 89. 



2 Genera Insectorum, Fasc. 137, 15 et seq. (1912). 



