176 Annals Entomological Society of America [Vol. XII, 



are now placed by Emery with the Cerapachyi among the 

 primitive Ponerinae, whereas the Melissotarsiis and Rhopalo- 

 mastix are now regarded by both Emery and Forel as Myrmi- 

 cinae, and Forel would place them at the head of this subfamily 

 "as being the most closely allied to the Ponerin^. " 



I admit that Metapone closely resembles the Ponerine genus 

 Cylindromyrmex, especially in the cylindrical shape of the body 

 and head and the scrobes for the accommodation of the antennae. 

 Moreover, the habits of Cylindromyrmex and of the allied genus 

 Simopone seem to be much the same as those of Metapone. 

 According to Mayr*, Cylindromyrmex striatus Mayr (C brasi- 

 liensis Emery) was collected by Hetschko in Santa Catharina, 

 Brazil, "in wood in the galleries of a termite," and Arnoldf 

 recently described Simopone marleyi from three specimens 

 taken by Marley at Durban "in hollow stems of the. castor oil 

 plant. " A closer comparison of Metapone with Cylindromyrmex 

 and Simopone, however, shows that the resemblances are merely 

 superficial or convergently adaptive to this very peculiarity of 

 habitat. The long, cylindrical body in various genera of wood- 

 inhabiting ants is no more an, indication of genetic affinities 

 than is the similar shape so frequently and strikingly exhibited 

 by various families of wood-boring Coleoptera (Ipidae, Cleridae, 

 Bostrichidas, Lymexylonidae, some Erotylidae, Trogositidae, 

 Buprestidse, Cerambycidas, Lucanidse, etc.) As long ago as 

 1891 Forel seems to have been deceived by these superficial 

 characters when he was writing his original account of the 

 genus Simopone.% He there stated that "the resemblance of 

 the genera Cylindromyrmex and Simopone to the genus Sima 

 Roger, which belongs to the Myrmicides, is not a fact of con- 

 vergence or of mimicry, but seems to me to be due to real 

 affinities, notwithstanding the difference in the form of the 

 pedicel. The genus Simopone, especially, with its very pro- 

 nounced abdominal constriction, seems almost to form a 

 transition to the Myrmicides, notwithstanding its Ponerid 

 sting and pygidium. " Here, again, the resemblance of Cylin- 

 dromyrmex and Simopone to Tetraponera {Sima auct.) is man- 

 ifestly due merely to similarity of habit, for the species of 



* Sudamerikanische Formiciden. Verh. zool. bot. Ges. Wien 37, 1887, p. 546. 

 t A Monograph of the Formicidae of South Africa I. Ponerinae and Dorylinae 

 Ann. S. Afr. Mus. 14, 1915, p. 21. 



X In Grandidier's Histoire Phys. Nat. Polit. Madagascar 20, 1891, p. 141. 



