170 Psyche [December 



we may next inquire whether the introduction of the name Donis- 

 thorpea was justified. Little study of the history of the ant genus 

 Lasins is needed to estabhsh the fact that there are at least three 

 other names, each of which would take precedence of the one sug- 

 gested by the authors under consideration. In 1840 Shuckard^ 

 gave the name Formicina to a genus, which according to his state- 

 ment contained what we now call Formica rufa and Lasius flavus, 

 so that if no resuscitator succeeds in exhuming some other name 

 suggested between 1807 and 1840, Formicina should be chosen to 

 replace Lasius Fabr., with L. flavus as the type. Shuckard evi- 

 dently selected the large Forviica herculeana L. as the type of his 

 genus Formica (our present Camponotus) and placed the smaller 

 species, which we now assign to Formica and Lasius, in his genus 

 Formicina. A second name Acanihomyops, was proposed by Mayr 

 in 1862^ for the North American Lasius claviger Roger. This name 

 has since been retained as that of a subgenus characterized by 

 three- jointed instead of six- jointed maxillary palpi in the worker 

 and female. Ruzsky,^ in 1913, recognized two additional sub- 

 genera: Dendrolasius and Chthonolasius, the type of the former 

 being L. fuliginosus Latr.; that of the latter, L. flavus L. Chthono- 

 lasius, therefore, falls as a synonym of Formicina Shuckard, but 

 even Dendrolasius would take precedence of Donisthorpea. If, 

 however, Formicina takes the place of Lasius as a generic name, the 

 genotype must be shifted to L. flavus, a species belonging to what is 

 now a different subgenus, so that Donisthorpea could be retained 

 as the name of a subgenus with L. niger as the type. The genus 

 would then have the following composition : 



Genus Formicina Shuckard { = Lasius Fabr.). 



Genotype: Formica flava X>. 

 Subgenus Formicina Shuckard { = Chthonolasius Ruzsky). 



Subgenotype: same as the genotype. 

 Subgenus Donisthorpea Morice and Durrant { = Lasius auct). 



Subgenotype : Formica nigra L. 

 Subgenus Dendrolasius Ruzsky. 



Subgenotype: Formica fuliginosa Latreille. 



1 In Swainson and Shuckard's "On the History and Natural Arrangements of Insects," 

 Longman, Orme, etc., London, 1840. 



2 Verh. zool. bot. Ges. Wien, 12, 1862, p. 699. 



8 Myrmekologische NoMiien. Arch. f. Naturg., 79, 1913, pp. 58-63, 3 figs. 



