17 2 HYMENOPTERA CHAP. 



workers attaining an inch and a quarter in length. This Insect, 

 according to Bates, marches in single file in the thickets at Para ; 

 its colonies consist of a small number of individuals, and are 

 established at the .roots of slender trees. The effects of its 

 powerful sting are not so serious as is the case with some of the 

 smaller ants. 



In Britain we have only two representatives of the sub-family, 

 viz. Ponera contracta, a small ant of dirty-yellow colour, found 

 rarely in the Southern counties, living in moss or under stones. 

 Its colonies consist of only a few individuals ; Forel giving fifty 

 as the highest number he has observed. The second species, P. 

 lii/nctatissima, presents the almost unique peculiarity of possess- 

 ing two forms of the male sex, one of them resembling the 

 worker in most of its peculiarities, and in being destitute of 

 wings, while the other is winged, as is usual in male ants. In 

 the island of St. Vincent another species of Ponera has been dis- 

 ' covered having an apterous and worker-like male, and was named 

 by Forel P. ci'</</f/i<7ri. 1 The discovery of this form has led 

 him to express some doubt as to whether Ponera punctatissi/n" 

 has two forms of males ; but it seems probable that it really is 

 so, the ergatoid males being produced under somewhat different 

 circumstances from the normal males. We have already said 

 that Cardiocondyla and a few other Myrmicides exhibit an 

 analogous peculiarit} T . 



The genus Myrmecia is confined to the Australian continent 

 and Tasmania, and includes a considerable number of species of 

 large and moderate-sized ants, the classification of which has 

 been a subject of difference of opinion. This has arisen from 

 the fact that the nodes of the abdominal pedicel are more similar 

 to those existing in the Myrmicides than to those of the typical 

 Ponerides. There are, however, some American members of the 

 latter sub-family (Paraponera clavata, e.g.) that differ but little 

 in this point from J////v//rrm, and, moreover, the pupae of Myr- 

 mecia are enclosed in a cocoon, while in the Myrmicides they 

 are usually naked. On the other hand the nests are, it appears, 

 very large and populous, more like what exists in the Myrmi- 

 cides ; there is no true stridulating organ on the first abdominal 

 segment. The genus is therefore one of those interesting 

 anomalies that form so large a proportion of the Australian 



1 Tr. cut. Sue. London, 1893. pp. 365-467. 



