THE NEOTROPICAL SPECIES OF THE ANT GENUS 
STRUMIGENYS FR. SMITH : 
GROUP OF GUNDLACHI (ROGER) 1 
By William L. Brown, Jr. 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
This paper is a continuation of my series on the New World fauna 
of the dacetine ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith. Earlier parts, con- 
taining keys to the abbreviations for measurements and proportions, 
may be found in Jour. New York Ent. Soc. 61 : 53-59, 101-110 
(1953). In addition to these, other parts have been published or are 
being prepared. At the end of the series, an illustrated key to the 
New World members of the genus will be forthcoming. 
Relationships of the gundlachi Group 
The present section deals with a group approximately equivalent 
to what I called in my preliminary generic revision of the Dacetini 
(Brown, 1948, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 74: 101-129) by the name 
Strumigenys subgenus Pyramica. At that time, the group seemed 
rather distinct from all the other Strumigenys species on the basis of 
the following characters: 
1. Mandibular insertions more remote. 
2. Apical fork of mandible with more or less reduced teeth. 
3. Inner mandibular border with a series of three or more denticles, 
instead of two, one or no preapical teeth in Strumigenys s. str. 
4. Antennal scapes shorter and broader. 
5. Spongiform appendages of petiole and postpetiole reduced. 
6. Labral lobes longer. 
7. General habitus, especially head shape. 
Since 1948, I have had the opportunity to study carefully the three 
species recently described by Kempf (1958, Rev. Brasil. Ent., 8: 59- 
68) as the S. connectcns group, which bridges very nicely the gap 
between Pyramica and the more typical Strumigenys — in particular, 
the S. louisianae group. The steps from Strumigenys to Pyramica 
are so gradual that it is clear only an arbitrary distinction can now 
be drawn between the two groups. Under these circumstances, there 
is no need for a formal generic or subgeneric split, and the name 
Pyramica goes into the synonymy of Strumigenys. (The one other 
’Published with the aid of a grant from the Museum of Comparative Zoolo- 
gy at Harvard College. 
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