60 
Psyche 
[June 
AN AUSTRALIAN ANT OF THE GENUS 
LEPTOTHORAX MAYR 
By William Morton Wheeler 
Leptothorax is supposed to have a cosmopolitan distri- 
bution, if we except Australia, Papua and New Zealand, 
from which no species of this large genus has ever been 
described. A few species range well up into the north 
temperate zone, both in North America and Eurasia, while 
others occur as far south as southern Brazil, the Cape of 
Good Hope and Sumatra. Several subgenera have been 
recognized but one is inclined to agree with Emery that the 
characters on which they are based are rather illusive and 
unimportant. Furthermore, Leptothorax is not sharply dif- 
ferentiated in tropical America from the genus Macromischa 
Roger. 
It now appears that Leptothorax is represented in the 
Australian fauna by at least one species. The late Mr. A. 
M. Lea of Adelaide, South Australia, sent me many years 
ago a large, miscellaneous collection of ants which he made 
in various parts of the island continent. Among the speci- 
mens, two workers which he took in the Cairns District, 
Queensland, unquestionably belong to the genus Leptothorax 
and combine the elongate petiolar peduncle of a group of 
species ( rottenbergi group of Emery), peculiar to the Med- 
iterranean Region, with the epaulate pronotum of the sub- 
genus Goniothorax, to which Emery has assigned the Ethi- 
opian, South African, Malagasy, Sumatran and Neotropical 
species. Since, however, a similar combination of charac- 
ters occurs in at least one South African Leptothorax (L. 
(G.) latinodis Mayr) I am placing the Australian ant in the 
subgenus Goniothorax. 
Leptothorax (Goniothorax) australis sp. nov. 
Worker: Length about 2.7 mm. 
Head somewhat longer than broad, broader behind than 
in front, with short, faintly sinuate posterior border, very 
