220 William Morton Wheeler 



Prenolepis pygmcea Mayr. 



Prenolepis pygmcea Mayr, Beitr. Naturk. Preuss. I, 1868, p. 36, Taf. I, Fig. 18 90^; 

 Dalla Torre, Catalog. Hymen. VII, 1893, p. 180; Ern. Andre, Bull. 

 Soc. Zool. France, XX, 1895, p. 82; Handlirsch, Foss. Insekt. 1908 p. 860. 



The male and female of this species are known and I have been 

 no more successful than Mayb, in discovering the worker phase. The 

 winged phases are easily distinguished from those of P. henschei by 

 their smaller size, the shape of the petiole and the pilosity. The male 

 measures only 1,5 — 1,7 mm, the female less than 3 mm. Mayk gives 

 „vix 4: mm" for this phase, but the type in the Geolog. Inst. Koenigs- 

 berg Coll. is certainly smaller though its body is curled up and in 

 an oblique position and therefore difficult to measure. The hairs on 

 the body are much shorter than in henschei, especially on the legs 

 and scapes, the petiole of the female is high and erect and com- 

 pressed anteroposteriorly, and its rounded border is emarginate in the 

 middle. In the male the petiole is somewhat inclined forward, 

 but less than in henschei and has a straight, transverse and entire 

 upper border. 



I have seen 49 specimens of P. pygmcea ; 33 males and 2 females 

 in the Geolog. Inst. Koenigsberg Coll. (B 5080, XXB 4643, B5100, 

 XXB713, XXB 1202, B 18598, XXB 282, 14375/1016, 11058/826, etc.), 

 six males in the Klebs Coll. (« 191, a 176, a 143, a 239) and 8 males 

 in the Haren Coll. (473, 1452, 1875, 2429). In all of these collections 

 single pieces of amber containing 2 — 4 males are rather common. In 

 addition to these I have studied the single gynetype (10235/628) and 

 10 of the 11 androtypes cited by Mayr from the Phys.-Oec. Soc. CoU. 

 (now the Geolog. Inst. Koenigsberg Coll.). 



Tribe Formicini Forel. 



Genus Lasius Mayr. 



Lasius schiefferdeckeri Mayr. (Fig. 58.) 



Lasius schiefferdeckeri Mayr, Beitr. Naturk. Preuss. I, 1868, p. 44, Taf. I, Fig. 2, Taf. II, 



Fig. 27-32, 2 9 cf. 



L. schiefferdeckeri Dalla Torre, Catalog. Hymen. VII, 1893, p. 191; Ern. Andre, 



Bull. Soc. Zool. France, XX, 1895, p. 82; Handlirsch, Foss. Insekt. 



1908 p. 861. 



All three phases of this ant were carefully described and figured 



by Mayr. Like Iridomyrmex goepperti, I. geinitzi, Prenolepis henschei 



and Formica fiori, it is one of the most abundant ants of the amber. 



Mayr examined 174 specimens, Ern. Andre 96. I have seen 902 



which are distributed as follows: 755 workers, 14 females and 13 males 



in the Geolog. Inst. Koenigsberg Coll. (B 19389, B 18839, XXB 348, 



