CTENOBETHYLUS (BETHYLIDAE) A NEW SYNONYM 
OF I RID OM YRMEX (FORMICIDAE, HYMENOPTERA) 1 
By William L. Brown, Jr. 
Department of Entomology, Cornell University 
Ithaca, New York 14853 
In 1939, in a paper describing several new genera and species 
of Baltic Amber Hymenoptera, C. T. Brues erected Ctenobethy- 
lus succinalis gen. et sp. nov. for a single specimen of what 
he took to be an apterous female bethylid. I recently chanced 
upon this description, and was immediately struck by the ant- 
like habitus of the type as portrayed in Brues’ fig. 7. It was also 
noted that the figure showed only 12 antennomeres, although 
Brues had made a diagnostic point of claiming “13-jointed” 
antennae for his genus. 
My suspicion that the type of C. succinalis is actually a worker 
ant of the dolichoderine genus Iridomyrmex was confirmed when 
it was sent for my study. The specimen has the legs folded up 
so as to obscure the waist, which explains why Brues did not see 
the petiolar scale. In the preparation as it now stands, however, 
the scale is partly visible in a left-side view, although it is covered 
with a white film. The specimen also has 12-merous antennae, 
and in fact closely corresponds to small-sized workers of Iri- 
domyrmex goepperti with which I have compared it directly. 
Although I have not seen the type of I. goepperti, I compared 
1 1 worker specimens of this commonest of all Baltic Amber ants 
lent from the Museum of Comparative Zoology collection. (/. 
goepperti made up over half of the more than 10,000 Baltic Amber 
ants determined by W. M. Wheeler at one time or another; see 
Wheeler, 1914: op. cit. infra, p. 8.) These specimens and the C. 
succinalis type meet very well the available descriptions of I. goep- 
perti. The formal synonymy is: 
'A Report of Research from the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment 
Station. Research supported by National Science Foundation Grant DEB75-22427. 
Manuscript received by the editor November 16, 1976 
213 
