DESCRIPTION OF THE ERGATOID QUEEN OF 
POGONOMYRMEX MAYRI WITH NOTES ON THE 
WORKER AND MALE (HYM., FORMICIDAE)* 
By Charles Kugler 
Department of Entomology 
Cornell University 
Ithaca, New York 14853 
Introduction 
During a recent stay in Santa Marta on the north coast of 
Colombia, I had the opportunity to study Pogonomyrmex mayri, 
the sole member of the subgenus Forelomyrmex, whose entire range 
is the desert and dry deciduous forest below 200 m. on the 
northwestern, western, and possibly southern skirts of the Sierra 
Nevada de Santa Marta. 
This ant was described by Forel (1899: 61-62, footnote) from 
worker(s) and male(s) he collected. Neither he nor subsequent 
entomologists, including P. J. Darlington, found females. The 
reason females were unknown became clear as I worked in the area 
and later began to look at the biology of P. mayri more closely. 
Though I collected males from vegetation nearly year around (3 
Sept, to 30 June), no winged females were seen in two years. 
Furthermore, only after thoroughly excavating 10 nests were any 
females found at all, one in each of 2 nests dug by my coworker, 
Maria del Carmen Hincapie, and her assistant. Both were ergatoid 
nest queens. 
This paper presents a formal description of those queens, notes on 
the worker and male supplementing Forel’s original description, 
and a discussion of the taxonomic status of Pogonomyrmex mayri. 
Notes on the biology of P. mayri will be reported later. 
*A report of research of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, 
New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University, 
Ithaca, New York 14853. 
Manuscript received by the editor October 20, 1978. 
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