1928] A New Species of Thaumatomyrmex from Cuba 
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Laboratory at Soledad, Cuba. Toward the end of that period a 
trip was made to the Mina Carlota, a pyrites mine in the Sierras 
to the south of Cumanyagua. The country in the vicinity of the 
mine is characteristic of the Cuban mountains; heavily wooded 
and excessively steep slopes with numerous limestone outcrops. 
The shells of land snails, always in evidence wherever the lime- 
stone occurs, were present in the greatest abundance, there being 
certain areas in which the ground was literally carpeted with the 
empty shells. Mr. W. J. Clench, Curator of Conchology of the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, made a large collection of 
these, and on the return of the party to Soledad the new Thau- 
matomyrmex was discovered among the shells which had been 
spread out for sorting. Only one specimen was found and since 
the time was too short to permit a return to the Mina Carlota, 
no search could be made for other specimens. It may be that 
the occurrence of the ant in the snail shells was entirely fortuitous 
and yet it does not seem unlikely that the extraordinary man- 
dibles are in some way connected with a diet of snails. At least 
there is an analogy in the pronounced, though less striking, 
modification of the mandibles of certain snail-eating beetles of 
the genus Cychrus. 
Thaumatomyrmex cochlearis sp. nov. 
Worker. Length: 4 mm. 
Head subquadrate, plainly longer than broad, the occiput 
very feebly impressed in the middle; the sides behind the eyes 
somewhat converging toward the occiput; the two prolongations 
of the gense anterior to the eyes strongly divergent, the maximum 
width of the head occurring at the insertion of the mandibles. 
The eyes large and convex, composed of about fifty very distinct, 
coarse facets. Antennal lobes prominent, ending in front in 
distinct angles. Antennal scapes stout, increasing in thickness 
throughout their anterior half, their tips just reaching the oc- 
cipital border. First funicular joint slightly longer than the 
succeeding two together; joints 2-7 distinctly transverse, the 
following three increasing in length; the terminal joint ap- 
proximately as long as the four proceeding joints together. 
