1919] Wheeler: The Genus Metapone 177 



Tetraponera and of the allied genus Pseudomyrma live in 

 cylindrical cavities or galleries in the branches or twigs of 

 plants. 



While I am of Emery's opinion that the species of Metapone 

 are true Myrmicine ants and show no particular relationship to 

 the Ponerinse, I do not agree with Emery in accepting Forel's 

 unfortunate term " Promyrmicinae " or in associating the 

 Metaponini as the first tribe of the Myrmicinse with the Pseudo- 

 myrmicini in a section under that name. It seems to me that 

 Emery is too much influenced by Forel's prepossessions. There 

 is, in fact, little or nothing that is primitive or ancestral about 

 Metapone, but much that is highly specialized and secondary, 

 e. g., the shape of the antennae and especially the reduction of 

 the number of antennal joints in the male and female phases, 

 the peculiar reduction of the palpal joints, the simplified vena- 

 tion of the fore wings, the peculiar structure of the petiole, 

 postpetiole and legs, the vestigial condition of the eyes in the 

 worker, etc. The larva is not only purely Myrmicine, but 

 quite unlike that of Pseudomyrma, Tetraponera and Pachysima, 

 as may be seen by comparison of Emery's figure (here repro- 

 duced as Fig. 2) with those in one of my recent papers.* Such 

 study as I have been able to make of four species of the genus 

 Metapone convinces me that it is an abberrant and highly 

 specialized, though probably ancient genus of Myrmicinas, 

 neither primitive nor ancestral, without special affinities to the 

 tribe Cylindromyrmicini or other Ponerinas and moreover not 

 even closely related to the tribes Peudomyrmicini. It should, of 

 course, constitute an independent tribe, Metaponini, as Forel 

 and Emery maintain, but its position among the other tribes 

 of the Myrmicinas is not easily determined. It might be placed 

 provisionally between Emery's Melissotarsini and his Stereo- 

 myrmicini, which have 11-jointed antennae in both male and 

 female phases. 



The following key will help in separating the six Metapone 

 species of which the worker or female is known. M. hewitti, 

 known only from the male, is redescribed below. 



* A Study of Some Ant Larvae, with a Consideration of the Origin and Meaning 

 of the Social'Habit Among Insects. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. 57, 1918, pp. 295-343, 

 12 Figs. 



