408 
Psyche 
[December 
attractants and recruitment pheromones may have had a common 
evolutionary origin. 
In view of these findings and this challenging suggestion, it 
becomes unusually interesting to query how early in Formicid 
evolution the “calling” behavior may have originated. For this 
reason we are led to put on record some observations of a similar 
behavior pattern made several years ago in the highly archaic 
Ponerine genus Amblyopone, and also to elaborate some further 
observations of the same kind in the genus Rhytidoponera, a part 
but not all of which has been noted priviously (Haskins and 
Whelden, 1965), but without particular reference to this context. 
The Genus Amblyopone 
The Ponerine genus Amblyopone includes a rather large group of 
species widely distributed over the world. In anatomy, colony 
structure, and behavior patterns they must certainly rank among the 
most archaic of surviving ants, rivalling or even exceeding in their 
primitiveness, the very different but also immensely archaic genus 
Myrmecia, as Wilson (1975) has recently emphasized. It was thus of 
interest to observe what clearly seems to be “calling” behavior in 
virgin females of two species — the North American A. pallipes and 
the Australian A. australis, both widely distributed and fairly 
common forms in their respective habitats. 
Amblyopone pallipes: From 1924 to 1927 an extensive and 
continuous series of observations was undertaken in the laboratory 
and field in an attempt to elucidate the nuptial flight and colony- 
founding behavior patterns in A. pallipes. This species appears to be 
ordinarily completely hypogeaic in habit, foraging entirely under- 
ground to satisfy its wholly entomophagous and highly specialized 
dietary requirements, normally if not invariably confined to a very 
limited range of Myriopoda. During late summer in the regions of 
New York State and Massachusetts where the work was done the 
galleries and chambers of the colonies are concentrated near the 
surface of the soil, commonly under logs or stones, and are 
characteristically crammed with cocoons of both sexes and castes. 
The alate females and males eclose there, and shortly escape 
aboveground, singly or in small groups. The males, fully pigmented, 
fly off at once. The females, still of the red callow coloration, climb 
prominent objects in the vicinity. They may or may not make short 
