56 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXIII, 



when present, extremely small. The gaster is small, owing to the undevel- 

 oped condition of the ovaries. A receptaculum seminis is usually lacking, 

 and the number of the ovarian tubules is greatly diminished.^ The antennae, 

 legs and mandibles are well developed. 



(17) The gynoecoid is an egg-laying worker. It is a physiological 

 rather than a morphological phase, since it is probable that all worker ants 

 when abundantly fed become able to lay eggs. Wasmann ^ observed 

 in colonies of Formica rufibarbis that a few of the workers became gynsecoid 

 and functioned as substitution queens. In colonies of the Ponerine genus 

 Leftogenys (including the subgenus Lobopelta), and probably also in Dia- 

 camma and Champsomyrmex, the queen phase has disappeared and has 

 been replaced by the gynsecoid worker. 



(18) The macrergaie is an unusally large worker form which in some 

 species is produced only in populous or affluent colonies {Formica, Lasius). 



(19) The micrergate, or dwarf worker, is a worker of unusually small 

 stature. It appears as a normal or constant form in the first brood of all 

 colonies that are founded by isolated females. 



(20) The dinergate, or soldier is characterized by a huge head and 

 mandibles, often adapted to particular functions (fighting and guarding the 

 nest, crushing seeds or the hard parts of insects), and a thoracic structure 

 sometimes approaching that of the female in size or in the development of 

 its sclerites (Pheidole). 



(21) The desmergate is a form intermediate between the typical worker 

 and dinergate, such as we find in more or less isolated genera of all the sub- 

 families except the Ponerinse, e. g., in Camponotus, some species of Pheidole, 

 Solenopsis, and Pogonomyrmex, Azteca, Dorylus, Eciton, etc. The term 

 might also be employed to designate the intermediate forms between the 

 small and large workers in such genera as Monomorium, Formica, etc. 



(22) The plerergate, 'replete,' or 'rotund,' is a worker which in its 

 callow stage has acquired the peculiar habit of distending its gaster with 

 stored liquid food ('honey') till this portion of the body is a large spherical 

 sac and locomotion becomes difficult or even impossible. This occurs in 

 the honey ants (some North American species of Myrmecocystus, some 

 Australian Melophorus and Camponotus, and to a less striking extent in cer- 

 tain species of Prenolepis and Plagiolepis) . 



(23) The pterergate is a worker or soldier with vestiges of wings on a 

 thorax of the typical ergate or dinergate form, such as I have described in 

 certain species of Myrmica and Cryptocerus? 



1 Adlerz's often-cited statement that the ovarian tubules are completely lacking in the 

 workers of Tetramorium caspitum seems to me to require confirmation. These organs may be 

 easily overlooked in dissecting such small ants. The study of stained sections of adult pupal 

 workers would probably yield more satisfactory results. 



2 Ameisenarbeiterinnen als Ersatzkoniginnen, loc. cit. 



3 Worker Ants with Vestiges of Wings. Bull. Am. .Mus. Nat. Hist., XXI, 1905, pp. 405-408, 

 pi. xiv. 



