1952] 
Creighton — Pseudomyrmex apache 
133 
fied the Costa Rica specimens. As far as could be ascer- 
tained there are no types of decipiens in American collec- 
tions. Nor do there seem to be any specimens other than 
types which Forel might have determined. Apparently 
Dr. Wheeler used Forets description as the basis for his 
identification and, as will be shown, this is a bad business 
at best. The original description of decipiens appeared in 
the ant section of the Biologia Centrali- Americana. It was 
based upon specimens coming from Teapa, a small town 
in the state of Tabasco, Mexico. The description is brief, 
but this is not the worst than can be said for it. It is suffi- 
ciently explicit to show that it does not accord in several 
important respects with the figure which is supposed to 
accompany it. These differences are so marked that there 
is justification for the view that the description and the 
figure can scarcely have been drawn from the same insect. 
In the figure the size of the eyes, the length of the antennal 
scapes and the proportions of the petiolar joints do not 
correspond at all to the description. Forel did not prepare 
the figure but he undoubtedly wrote the description, hence 
the latter seems more reliable as an indication of the 
characteristics of decipiens. Wheeler had evidently reached 
this conclusion, for his Costa Rica specimens agree much 
better with Forets description than with his figure. But 
it should be clear that there can be no certainty as to the 
exact nature of Forets decipiens until the types can be 
re-examined. 
At the same time it seemed to the writer that it should 
be possible to clarify the status of specimens coming from 
the southwestern United States by collecting in northern 
Mexico. If the southwestern specimens were a northern 
race of decipiens , the two should intergrade at some point 
between Tabasco and the southern border of the United 
States. The survey work mentioned above gave an ideal 
opportunity to test this in the field. During January and 
February of 1952 careful vertical surveys were made in 
the mountains of eastern Mexico at three latitudes. The 
southernmost of these was in the Tamazunchale area. This 
survey ranged from three hundred feet to eight thousand 
feet. Similar studies were made in the mountains west of 
