7. MYEMECODItTS. 311 



Subfamily II. MYRMECOBIINiE. 



Tongue long, cylindrical, extensile. Premaxillae separate in front. 

 Bony palate much produced backwards. Molars small and delicate, 

 more than four, both above and below, the lower ones with the 

 outer series of cusps aborted, and the inner alone well developed. 



7. MYEMECOBIUS. 



Type. 



Myrmecobiua, Waterh. P. Z. S. 1836, p, 69 M. fasciatus. 



Form graceful, squirrel-like. Nose long, rhinarium naked, 

 grooved below ; lower lip produced forwards into a long pointed 

 projection, which fits into the groove below the rhinarium. Palate 

 with about fourteen transverse ridges. Tongue very long, slender, 

 tapering, extensile, its surface quite smooth. Ears long and 

 narrow ; metatragus small, thick, triangular, rounded at its tip, not 

 folded distally. Chest with a peculiar complex gland, opening on 

 the surface by several large and distinct apertures*. Back trans- 

 versely banded with white. Toes 5 — 4, provided with long fossorial 

 claws ; hallux altogether wanting externally, although its metatarsus 

 is present in the skeleton ; palms and soles smooth, naked, the 

 pads small and granulated. Tail long and bushy. Pouch entirely 

 obsolete ; mammae 4. 



Skull broad and unridged, the bones thin and delicate. Muzzle 

 conical. Nasals much expanded behind. Interorbital space very 

 broad and smooth, its edges forming prominent overhanging ledges, 

 interrupted by a deep supraorbital notch. Postorbital processes 

 long. Palate complete, without vacuities, produced very far back- 

 wards. Bullae swollen. Lower jaw long and slender, its angle but 

 little inflected. 



Dentition -—I ^■^■^■* C i P ^•"•^•^ M i-g-3-^-5.01 



(usually 1^) X 2=50 to 52. 



Teeth small, insectivorous, chiefly remarkable for their striking 

 resemblance to those of the Mesozoic Polyprotodont Marsupials, 

 such as Phascolotherium and others. Upper incisors thin and 

 conical, i.' slightly smaller than the others. Canines but little 

 longer than the premolars, scarcely projecting beyond them. Pre- 

 molars very variable in size and shape ; as a rule p.i is narrow and 

 unicuapid, p.' is similar, but has in addition rudimentary secondary 

 cusps on its anterior and posterior edges, while in p.' the central 

 cusp is shortened and the secondary cusps are more developed, so 



* For an account of the minute structure of this remarkable gland, see Bed- 

 dard, P. Z. S. 1887, p. 527. 



t Normally, but two specimens in the collection possess, through atavism, a 

 fourth incisor on one side, and thereby prove which of the original four lower 

 incisors has been lost by the modern three- toothed forms. 



X I can find no satisfactory evidence for the common statement that there 

 are sometimes six upper molars, all the specimens that I know of having only five 



