1916] Wheeler — The Ant Genus Lasius and its Subgenera 171 



Subgenus Acanthomyops Mayr. 



Subgenotype: Lasius claviger Roger. 



While discussing ^Nlorice and Durrani's work in a recent paper^ 

 Forel contends that Acanthomyops iNIayr. should replace Lasius 

 Fabr. He therefore cites the genus and its subgenera thus: 



"Genre Acanthomyops Mayr. (1862). 

 = Lasius F. 1804 (wow Jurine 1801). 

 = Donisthorpea INIorice et Durrant. 



Type: claviger Roger. 

 Subgen.: Chthonolasius Ruzsky. 



Type: niger L. (flavus ex Ruzsky). 

 Subgen. : Dendrolasius Ruzsky. 



Type: fuliginosus L.atT." 



This arrangement seems to me to be inadmissible, first, because 

 Forel has no right to change the type of the subgenus Chthonolasius 

 from L. flavus to L. niger, and second, because these two forms, 

 in my opinion, represent distinct subgenera, Chthonolasius ( = For- 

 micina) being sufficiently characterized by the shape of the maxil- 

 lary palpi of the female and worker, the vestigial eyes of the worker 

 and the hypogseic mode of life. In the two latter characters the 

 species of Chthonolasius resemble those of Acanthomyops and not 

 niger and its allies. x\s an after- thought, however, Forel appends 

 the following postscript: "Mr. Emery m'ecrit qu'a son avis il 

 vaudrait mieux prendre pour Lasius le nom nou vehement deterre 

 par Wheeler de Formicina Shuck., nom en partie basesur le Lasius 

 flavus. Je n'ai rien a y opposer, pourvu qu'on finisse une bonne 

 fois avec ces demenagements perpetuels des anciens noms." I 

 infer, therefore, that he now^ favors an arrangement like that gi^'en 

 above (p. 170) with Formicinaas the genus, but with Donisthorpea 

 eliminated and its species included in the subgenus Formicina. 



For the present I propose to be conservative and to retain Lasius 

 Fabr., because the status of Panzer's Erlangen list seems to me 

 to be very dubious and because I sympathize with those entomolo- 

 gists who decline to abolish generic names in universal use for more 



1 Fourmis du Cogo et d'autres provenances i6co!t6es par M M. Hermann Kohl, Luja, Mayne, 

 etc. Rev. Suisse Zool. 24, 1916. p. 460. 



