1959] 
Broivn — Ant genus Strumigenys 
39 
identical with types of eggersi inf. us cat a Weber and with many 
other samples from the Caribbean area in the MCZ. It became 
evident that most of the forms originally described as varieties of S. 
eggersi were in fact only variants of gundlachi. Later, Dr. E. M. 
Hering, of the Zoologisches Museum in Berlin, kindly confirmed the 
same points for the remaining gundlachi syntypes in the Roger Col- 
lection. 
Relationship and Synonymy of S. gundlachi and S. eggersi 
Early in the study, S. denticulata and S. subedentata (with its 
synonyms clavata and tristani ) were recognized as distinct species. 
Later, the new species jamaicensis and trieces were discovered and 
set to one side. The large residue of samples available in the gund- 
lachi group all appeared to fall into one complex of very similar but 
variable forms. On further study, this complex was resolved into 
two morphological species, one corresponding to the gundlachi type, 
and the other to syntypes of eggersi in the USNM, differentiated by 
the characters cited in the description below and shown in Figs. 7 
and 8. There remained the task of determining the identity of the 
six subspecies and varieties assigned to eggersi by various authors: 
var. vincentensis Forel, var. cubaensis Mann, var. banillensis Santschi, 
var. isthmica Santschi, subsp. infuscata Weber and var. berlesei 
Weber. Of these, vincentensis , cubaensis and banillensis were all de- 
scribed as lacking preapical denticulation on the mandibles. The types 
of cubaensis were examined first; these are specimens of Strumigenys 
louisianae Roger, and have been synonymized accordingly (Brown, 
1953, Amer. Midi. Nat., 50: 28-29.). A worker type of banillensis 
from the Santschi Collection proved to have partly broken but dis- 
tinct preapical denticulation, and it agreed well otherwise with 
gundlachi. The unique type of vincentensis cannot be found in the 
British Museum or in the Forel Collection ; it is almost certainly 
just another gundlachi specimen in which the denticulae were over- 
looked, judging from the description and locality. Types of in- 
fuscata and berlesei were compared with the gundlachi lectotype, and 
these names are judged to be straight synonyms. The description of 
isthmica agrees well with the types and Panamanian samples of 
gundlachi. All named variants of eggersi are thus accounted for. 
There is one more name: S. bierigi Santschi. The description of this 
form from Cuba fits the typical gundlachi so well that there seems 
no reason to doubt its synonymy; gundlachi is the most common 
