AMMOCHiETVE. 1 97 



Goniomma Ern. Andre. — Of the few forms that have been 

 assigned to this Mediterranean genus, I have examined only G. 

 blanci Andre var. tuneticum Forel from the Sahara. The head 

 of the worker, represented in Fig. 5, shows well- developed cly- 

 peal and mandibular ammochaetae. On the gula, however, which 

 has no distinct median suture, the bristles are diffuse and only 

 moderately developed, and not arranged in an arc. This ant 

 is probably granivorous like G. hispanicum, whose habits have 

 been studied by Forel. 



Oxyopomyrmex Ern. Andre. — This group, like the preceding, 

 comprises a few small Mediterranean species. I have been able 

 to examine a number of workers and females of O. santschii Forel 

 kindly sent me by Dr. F. Santschi of Kairouan, Tunis. The 

 ammochsetae are similar to those of Goniomma tuneticum. The 

 gular bristles are diffuse and rather short, though conspicuously 

 longer than the hairs on other parts of the body. Santschi has 

 recently shown that this ant garners seeds. 1 



Both Goniomma and Oxyopomyrmex seem to represent depau- 

 perate offshoots of the grain-storing portion of the genus Ste- 

 namma [Messor). The depauperate character is apparent in the 

 small size of the insects and their colonies and in the vestigial 

 condition of the gular ammochaetae. 



Holcomyrmex Mayr. — This genus of harvesting ants, appar- 

 ently confined to southern Asia and 

 northern Africa, was at first regarded 

 by Emery 2 as being hardly distinct 

 from Stenamma, but somewhat later 3 

 he says : " Dans ma clef analytique 

 des genres des formicides j'ai exprime 

 des doutes sur la validite des charac- 

 ters qui separent le genre Holcomyr- 

 mex de Stenamma. Toutefois l'aiguil- FlG " 7- Holcomyrmex chobauti 



Emerv. 

 Ion est bien developpe chez Holco- 

 myrmex, faible ou rudimentaire chez tous les sous-genres de 



1 See Forel, " Miscellanea Myrmecologiques, Rev. Suisse Zool., T. XII., 1904. 



2 Clef Analytique des Genres de la Famille des Formicides, pour la Determination 

 desNeutres," Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg., T. XL., 1896, p. 185, nota. 



3 " Description d'une Fourmi Nouvelle d'Algerie," Bull. Soc. Ent. France, 

 1896, p. 419. 



