22 
Psyche 
[Vol. 92 
blackish brown, appendages light to medium brown. Dominican 
Republic amber: no further locality. 
Paratvpe workers. Five specimens in 4 amber pieces: one from 
Palo Quemado (Pronotal Width 1.11 mm), 4 others from Domini- 
can amber with no further locality, 2 of which are in one piece 
(Pronotal Width 0.90-1.30 mm). 
Hypoclinea 
The modern genus Hypoclinea as presently defined is nearly cos- 
mopolitan (absent in Africa) and highly diverse in anatomy and 
behavior. At least 15 species compose the living Neotropical fauna, 
almost all confined to the mainland of Mexico, Central America, 
and South America. The most widespread form, H. lutosa, occurs 
from Brazil to Trinidad and southern Mexico. It has also been 
recorded from St. Vincent in the southern part of the Lesser 
Antilles, where it is quite rare (Forel, 1893). Hypoclinea is appar- 
ently absent in the remainder of the West Indies, including all of the 
Greater Antilles, a circumstance giving the Dominican amber spe- 
cies to be described below more than ordinary biogeographic 
importance. 
Hypoclinea primitiva, new species 
(Fig. 4) 
Diagnosis (worker). A medium-sized (Head Width 0.6-0. 7 
mm), slender species with several primitive traits for Hypoclinea 
overall, including a relatively unmodified alitrunk, smoothly 
rounded propodeum, simple petiolar scale, and a “generalized” head 
shape with reference to the Dolichoderini in general. Closest in 
appearance to H. germaini of South America among living species; 
germaini differs from primitiva, however, in having a blunt, trans- 
verse ridge that separates the dorsal and declivitous faces of the 
propodeum, as well as more flattened pro- and mesonota (both of 
these traits are reasonably interpreted as having been derived in 
evolution). 
The name primitiva alludes both to the antiquity of the species 
and to the set of traits just cited that are provisionally interpreted to 
be primitive within the genus and perhaps even in the Dolichoderi- 
nae as a whole. 
