1962] 
Brown — A mblyopone 
75 
mandibles and clypeus obscurely longitudinally striate-punctate, opaque 
to subopaque. Lower sides of propodeum with the usual faint longi- 
tudinal striae. Remainder of body smooth or nearly smooth and 
shining, with fine spaced punctures, these most dense on petiolar dor- 
sum and on two succeeding segments, where integument almost appears 
loosely coriaceous in some lights, but is still definitely shining. 
Pubescence appressed and subappressed, moderately dense, generally 
distributed over body and appendages (not on sides of alitrunk) ; erect 
pilosity short, mostly oblique, moderately abundant, becoming longer 
on gastric apex, antennal apices and mandibles; very sparse on legs. 
Color ferruginous yellow, the head capsule very slightly darker, appen- 
dages somewhat lighter. 
Paratype female (dealate) : TL 3.1, HL 0.65, HW 0.57 (Cl 88), 
WL 0.91, petiolar node L 0.26, W 0.38, scape L 0.37, greatest 
diameter of compound eye 0.1 1 mm. 
Similar to the holotype worker, but with the usual differences of 
caste: fairly large compound eyes (no eyes could be detected in the 
worker), ocelli developed and with blackened calli, wing stumps 
present and blackened ; meso- and metathoracic flight sclerites well 
developed, but rather flat, continuing the weakly convex surface of 
the alitrunk without major interruption. As usual for females of this 
genus, the petiole and gaster are relatively a little wider than in the 
worker, and the head, while still light ferruginous, is a trifle darker 
than in the worker. Alitrunk also rather coarsely and closely punctate 
above, but still distinctly shining. 
The holotype worker and female paratype, the only adults taken, 
were found on Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone, on 
January 6, i960 [W. L. Brown, Jr., leg.], and deposited in the 
Museum of Comparative Zoology. The specimens were found together 
with a few larvae and pupae in a cavity in the underside of a small 
rotten branch lying in moist leaf litter on the forest floor, in what 
is variously described as rain forest or monsoon forest, close to 
Snyder-Molino Trail and less than 100 meters from the Laboratory 
Clearing of the Smithsonian Institution’s Canal Zone Biological Area. 
These specimens were the very first ants I collected during a three- 
week stay on the island. When first collected, they were mistaken for 
Prionopelta, a related genus found very rarely on the island, but com- 
mon elsewhere in Central and South America. After closer examina- 
tion revealed their true identity, I searched energetically for the species 
in likely habitats for the remainder of my stay, as did my companion, 
Dr. E. S. McCluskey, but we never found it again. This is only one 
