450 
Psyche 
[Vol. 92 
numerous larvae from Botanical Gardens, Singapore, courtesy of 
M. W. Moffett.) 
The solution to the problem of relationship can be best provided 
in a table (Table 1) comparing simultaneously the larvae of Proatta, 
Myrmicocrypta [which Wheeler regarded (1910:329) as the most 
primitive of the fungus-growing ants] and the most specialized 
(Cyphomyrmex, Trachymyrmex, Mycetosoritis, Acromyrmex and 
Atta). For a full understanding of the table one should refer to our 
1948 and 1976 papers. 
So what is the answer? We conclude that the larva of Proatta is 
definitely attine. We have a prejudice against attaching a small 
monotypic genus found locally in the Oriental Realm to a large 
wide-spread tribe in the Neotropical Realm; hence we had hoped 
that the larva would be either strongly attine or strongly non-attine. 
It is neither, but it is as good an attine as Myrmicocrypta. It lacks 
the coarse spinules on the mandibles, which is an attine character, 
but so does Apterostigma, which is otherwise like the higher attines. 
The weightiest evidence is said to be that Proatta is not known to 
be a fungus-grower; but is it really necessary that the ancestral attine 
already have that habit? 
Literature Cited 
Emery, C. 
1922. Fam. Formicidae, Subfam. Myrmicinae. Genera lnsectorum Fasc. 174. 
307 p. 
Forel, A. 
1912. Descriptions provisoires de genres, sous-genres et especes de Formi- 
cides des Indes orientales. Rev. Suisse Zool. 20 : 761-774. 
1917. Cadre synoptique actuel de la faune universelle des fourmis. Bull. Soc. 
Vaud. Sci. Nat. 51 : 230-253. 
Weber, N. A. 
1958. Nomenclatural notes on Proatta and Atta. Ent. News 69: 1-13. 
Wheeler, G. C. 
1948. The larvae of the fungus-growing ants. Amer. Midland Natur. 40 : 
664-689. 
Wheeler, G. C., and Jeanette Wheeler. 
1976. Ant larvae: review and synthesis. Ent. Soc. Washington Memoir No. 7, 
108 p. 
Wheeler, W. M. 
1910. Ants. Columbia Univ. Press, New York. 663 p. 
1922. The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition. Bull. 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 45 : 39-269, 22 pi. 
