33 



Prodiscothyrea, a New Genus of ponerine ants 

 from Queensland. 1 



By William Morton Wheeler. 

 (Communicated by Arthur M. Lea.) 



[Read April 13, 1916.] 



Plate IV. 



Prodiscothyrea, gen. nov. 



Worker. Small, monomorphic, closely related to Dis- 

 cothyrea, Roger. Mandibles triangular, with straight, 

 toothless apical border, furnished with a row of short, dense, 

 regular setae. Both the maxillary and labial palpi 4-jointed. 

 Head produced and narrowed in front to the very short, trans- 

 verse clypeus which projects out over the mandibles like a 

 roof. Frontal carinae large, lyriform, horizontally flattened, 

 apparently fused in front with the middle of the clypeus, 

 where they are closely approximated. Frontal area and 

 groove obsolete. Head deeply and broadly excavated at the 

 sides of the frontal carinae, forming large, laterally indis- 

 tinct scrobes for the accommodation of the antennal scapes. 

 Ocelli absent, eyes small, but convex, well in front of the 

 middle of the head. Antennae very large and robust, 10- 

 jointed; scape incrassated, inserted at the anterior border of 

 the head very near the clypeal margin, concave on the flexor 

 surface for the accommodation of the funiculus; the latter 

 with greatly enlarged apical and very transverse basal joints. 

 Thorax short, convex and rounded above, without promeso- 

 notal and mesoepinotal sutures, epinotum merely tuberculate, 

 inferior corners of pronotum blunt. Petiole small, rounded 

 above, and attached by nearly its whole posterior surface to 

 the postpetiole, unarmed beneath. Postpetiole very large, 

 forming the great bulk of the abdomen; gastric segments 

 small, the first very convex above, turned downward and 

 forward, remaining segments small, forming an anteriorly 

 directed cone, as in Discothyrea, Proceratium, Sysphincta, 

 and Spaniopone. Sting well developed. Legs with slender 



(l) "Contribution from the Entomological Laboratory of the 

 Bussey Institution, Harvard University, No. 102. 

 c 



