92 
Psyche 
[June 
THE LARVA OF ALLOMERUS (HYM.: FORMICID M) 
By George C. Wheeler 
University of North Dakota 
That the genus Allomerus has received scant attention 
from myrmecologists might be attributed to its restricted 
range, the paucity of its species, the small size of the work- 
ers and the arboreal nesting habits. Nevertheless, my studies 
on the larvae would seem to indicate that these ants merit 
more extensive investigation. 
There are only two species in the genus — decemarticulatus 
Mayr and octoarticulatus Mayr. The latter has four varie- 
ties. In the Genera Insectorum (1922) Emery records the 
geographic distribution of all forms as “Bresil : Amazonas.” 
A. o. var. demerarx W. M. Wheeler (1929), however, occurs 
in British Guiana. The minute yellow workers and their 
much larger sexual forms inhabit natural cavities in swell- 
ings of plants in tropical rain forests. The most complete 
account of the habits of Allomerus is given by Dr. W. M. 
Wheeler in the Transactions of the Fourth International 
Congress of Entomology (1929, p. 343). 
The larvse of Allomerus unique in two characteristics 
— body hairs and sexual differentiation. The flattened, 
angulate body hairs of the worker and young sexual larvse 
and the enormous, rigid, serrate ventral hairs of the mature 
sexual forms are peculiar to this genus. As a rule, the larvse 
of the sexual forms of ants are differentiated from those of 
their workers chiefly by size. In Allomerus , however, they 
differ in size, shape and hairs, and these differences are so 
great that the two types might be regarded as generically 
distinct, were it not for the similarity of the heads. 
Allomerus octoarticulatus Mayr. var. demerarae W. M. 
Wheeler. 
Young worker larva (PI. VII, Fig. 2) : Similar to ma- 
ture worker larva but more slender. 
