﻿DORYLIDES WANDERING ANTS 



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We have reserved to the end of the ants the consideration of 

 the two groups Dorylides and Amblyoponides, recent investigations 

 having rendered it somewhat doubtful whether they can be 

 maintained as distinct from Ponerides. The chief character of 

 the Dorylides is that the males are much less ant-like in form 

 than they are in the other groups, and that the distinction 

 between the females and workers are enormous. The little that 

 is known as to the males and females of this group suggests 

 the view that these sexes may offer sufficient reason for keep- 

 ing the Dorylides as a group distinct from the other ants ; but 

 it must be admitted that it is very difficult to find satisfactory 

 characters to distinguish the workers of the Dorylides in some 

 cases from the Ponerides, in others (Helton) from the Myrmicides. 1 



The Dorylides are of great interest, for they exhibit the remark- 

 able phenomenon of a nomadic 

 social life, accompanied by im- 

 perfect sight in the wanderers. 

 The sub-family includes two 

 apparently distinct groups : 

 (1) the Ecitonini, peculiar to 

 the New World, and having 

 a close relationship with the 

 Myrmicides ; and (2) the 

 Dorylini existing chiefly in 

 the eastern hemisphere, and 

 related closely by its workers 

 to the Ponerides and Ambly- 

 oponides. (i.) The Ecitonini 

 consist of the species of the 

 genus Eciton, the wandering 

 ants of America, and of Labi- 

 dics, which there is now good 

 reason for believing to con- 

 sist of the males of Eciton. 

 The female is still uncertain. The Eciton are nomad ants 

 having no fixed abode, but wandering from place to place in 

 search of prey, and forming temporary resting-places. The 



1 For a valuable revision of Dorylus and its allies see Emery, Zool. Jahrb. Syst. 

 viii. 1895, pp. 685, etc. We, however, doubt the wisdom of extending the sub- 

 family so as to include Cerapachys, Parasyscia, etc. 



Fig. 78. — Various forms of worker of Eciton 

 hamatum. Guatemala. 



