1929] 
The Ant Genus Rhopalomastix 
95 
THE ANT GENUS RHOPALOMASTIX 1 
By William Morton Wheeler 
The genus Rhopalomastix was established by Forel in 
1900 for a very aberrant female Myrmicine ant ( Rh . roth- 
neyi) taken by G. A. J. Rothney at Barrackpore, near Cal- 
cutta, India 2 . In 1911 he detected the worker and male of 
this species and also the female of a second species or sub- 
species (Rh. escherichi) among the ants collected by Prof. 
K. Escherich in Ceylon 3 , and was therefore able to recognize 
the close relationship of the genus to Melissotarsus Emery, 
which now comprises four species, confined to the Ethiopian 
and Malagasy Regions, namely, M. beccarii Emery from 
Erythrea and Natal, emeryi Forel from southern Ethiopia, 
with a var. pilipes Santschi in East Africa, weissi Santschi 
from the Congo and insularis Santschi from Madagascar. 
In both genera, which together now constitute the tribe 
Melissotarsini, the antennae of the worker are very short, 
with much enlarged terminal joint, the frontal carinae are 
closely approximated and resemble those of certain Pon- 
erinae (Ponera), the thoracic dorsum is sutureless and the 
tibiae of the middle and hind legs are spurless. The wings of 
the male and female lack the discoidal cell, and have a long 
cubital and a closed and appendiculate radial cell. The anten- 
nae of the males are 12- jointed in both genera, but the 
worker of Melissotarsus has the antennae composed of only 
6 joints, whereas there are 10 in Rhopalomastix. Melis- 
sotarsus is also peculiar in possessing conspicuously dilated 
basitarsal joints on all the legs. Emery 4 believed that the 
worker of M. beccarii was distinctly dimorphic, or repre- 
iContributions from the Entomological Laboratory, Bussey Institution, 
Harvard University, No. 313. 
2 Forel, A. Un nouveau genre et une nouvelle espece de Myrmicide. Ann. 
Soc. Ent. Belg. 44, 1900, p. 24-26. 
3 Forel, A. Ameisen aus Ceylon. In K. Escherich’s “Termitenleben auf 
Ceylon”, 1911 pp. 215-228. 
4 Emery, C. Catalogo delle formiche esistenti nelle collezioni del Museo 
Civico di Genova. Part I. Anal. Mus. Civ. Genova 9, 1877 p. 378-379, fig. 
