FAMILY FORMICID.E. 



Subfaniily Poneriiicfi Mayr. 



Tribe Prionomyrmicini, trib. nov. 



Genus JPHononiyrniex Mayr. 



This very interesting genus was established by Mayr on a single 

 imperfect worker in the Berendt collection. Examination of eight 

 specimens, some of which are in an excellent state of preservation, 

 enables me to add the following details to his generic description: 

 The clypeus is triangular, projects forward and is acutely pointed in 

 the middle; it is flattened or feebly concave and fills out the space 

 between the bases of the long,, ensiform, denticulate mandibles when 

 they are closed. Maxillary palpi 6-jointed; labial palpi 4-jointed. 

 Frontal carinas subparallel, their anterior ends somewhat lobe-like and 

 flattened, but small and horizontal. Frontal area absent. Eyes large 

 and convex and at the middle of the sides of the head, not behind 

 the middle, as stated by Mayr. Ocelli often absent. Antennse 12-jointed, 

 slender; funiculus filiform, without a club, all its joints decidedly 

 longer than broad. All the tibiae with pectinated spurs. Fourth tarsal 

 joint deeply bilobed; claws stout, bidentate. 



This genus, as Mayr has shown, is related to the Australian 

 Myrmecia, which Emery rightly regards as comprising the most gene- 

 ralized of living ants. Prionomyrmex is even more primitive in its 

 structure and therefore deserves to rank as the archetype of all known 

 Formicidce, for when we compare it with Mynnccia, we find that its 

 mandibles, though greatly elongated, are not linear and specialized, 

 but have a distinct and uniformly denticulate masticatory border, the 

 clypeus is well-developed and the pedicel of the abdomen and gaster 

 are more primitive and more like those of the Foicrinte in general 

 than in the Australian genus, in which the structure of these parts 

 recalls that of certain Mynnicinw (PseiidotnyrminiJ. 



