POPULATION STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 
IN THE PRIMITIVE ANT AMBLYOPONE PALLIPES 
(HYMENOPTERA: FORMICIDA E) 
By James F. A. Traniello 1 
Harvard University, 
Museum of Comparative Zoology Laboratories 
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, U.S.A. 
I INTRODUCTION 
The genus Amblyopone contains the most morphologically and 
behaviorally primitive species in the poneroid complex of ants, and 
a detailed examination of their social structure could significantly 
contribute to the reconstruction of social evolution in the Formi- 
cidae. But because of their cryptic habits and distribution, the biol- 
ogy of the majority of species of Amblyopone and the related genera 
Mystrium, Myopopone, Prionopella, and Onychomyrmex remains 
almost entirely unknown. Previous investigations have provided 
information on colony foundation (Haskins, 1928; Haskins and 
Enzmann, 1938; Haskins and Haskins, 1951), ecology, behavior, 
and taxonomy (Wheeler, 1900; Brown, 1960; Gotwald and Levieux, 
1972; Baroni Urbani, 1978), and physiology (Whelden, 1958). Still, 
many of the details of social organization in Amblyopone are lack- 
ing. I present in this paper the results of a two-year study on the 
behavior and ecology of Amblyopone pallipes. 
Material and Methods 
Study areas and nest collection 
Thirty-one colonies of A . pallipes were collected under stones in a 
damp, white pine woodland in Westford, Massachusetts. A single 
colony was taken under the bark of a rotting log. Nests generally 
consisted of one or two shallow (6-10 mm) depressions in the soil 
immediately beneath the stone, from which a single gallery opened 
to subterranean chambers. Gentle excavation usually revealed one 
or two additional loosely structured chambers. Workers, queens, 
•Present address: Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, 
Massachusetts 02215 
Manuscript received by the editor February 18, 1982. 
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