WHEELER: AUSTRALIAN ANTS. 47 
Antennae 12-jointed, funiculus filiform, not clavate or conspicuously 
enlarged at the tip. Thorax slender, with very distinct promesonotal 
and mesoépinotal sutures; mesonotum small, discoidal, with distinct 
sutures on all sides. Petiole with a short peduncle in front and a 
large, prominent compressed ventral projection, the node rounded, 
scarcely narrowed behind where it articulates by means of its whole 
posterior surface with the postpetiole. Postpetiole large, convex 
below, separated by a pronounced constriction from the gaster, which 
is rather short. Sting very long and well-developed. Legs long; 
middle and hind tibiae without spurs; terminal joints of the middle 
and hind tarsi conspicuously elongated and incrassated, with very 
large, strongly curved, simple claws and large pulvilli. 
Female. Apterous and ergatomorphic. Head broadened in front 
and more depressed at the anterior corners than in the worker. Eyes 
very small; ocelli absent. Mandibles more falecate, not abruptly 
curved at the tips, with only a few short, blunt teeth. Mesonotum 
somewhat longer than in the worker. Petiole differing from that of 
the worker in being much broader, with a very short and narrow 
peduncle and lacking the ventral projection. Constriction between 
the postpetiole and gaster much less distinct than in the worker. 
Gaster much larger, elongate elliptical, sting somewhat smaller. In 
other respects like the worker. 
Larva. Slender, smooth and nontuberculate, with twelve very 
distinct postcephalic segments, the constrictions between which are 
everywhere deep and conspicuous, even at the posterior end of the 
body. Head. short, rounded, with well-developed, slender, acute, 
faleate mandibles, destitute of teeth. Clypeus rather long, project- 
ing. Antennae very small. Maxillary sensillae long and prominent. 
Head sparsely, remainder of body more densely and uniformly covered 
with short, straight, stiff hairs or bristles. 
Genotype: Onychomyrmex hedleyi Emery. 
The discovery of the ergatoid female of Onychomyrmex only adds 
to our perplexity in regard to the precise taxonomic position of the 
genus. Similar females are known to occur in a few other ponerine 
genera, notably in Acanthostichus, Paranomopone, which I recently 
described from Queensland, and Leptogenys (subgenus Lobopelta), 
but all of these, together with Onychomyrmex, belong to very differ- 
ent sections of the subfamily, and the resemblances between them 
seem to be due to “convergence” and not to morphological relation- 
ship, or common phylogenetic development. The thorax of the female 
has simply assumed the structure of that of the worker, while the 
