NOTES ON AUSTRALIAN ANTS. 
“The absence of any winged or dealated females of the usual type 
either amongst the specimens of aberrant and its subspecies hitherto 
collected or in any of the nests which I excavated, raises the question 
as to the existence of such forms, etc., etc.” 
A nest of M. ( P .) aberrant found by me at Altona, Victoria, 
contained over 50 workers and two females, whilst a nest, in 
the same locality, taken by Mr. T. Greaves, a young Myrme- 
cologist, had over that number of workers, eight females and 
seven or eight winged males. The female is ergatoid, as is 
also the female of an undescribed species in my collection. No 
winged females have been found, and in that respect this species 
resembles Myrmecia esuriens Fab. of Tasmania. The ethology 
of M. (P.) aberrans does not differ from several of the other 
small species. The nest and habits of M . (P.) picta Smith are 
similar ; these are dealt with below. As to the morphology, 
when one is familiar with the sexes and forms of all known 
small species it is at once apparent that if Emery’s subgenera 
are to be maintained it becomes necessary to erect a new sub- 
genus for every second species ; the difference so apparent in 
the workers are, however, not apparent in the males and females, 
and the subgenera are therefore not justified. With the material 
already available a complete range of forms exists connecting 
M. aberrans at one end of the group with M. mandibularis at 
the other. While the connection is evident in the workers it 
is even more so in the females. They must be the deciding 
factor. At present we know these ants from limited areas only 
and undoubtedly future collecting will reveal many forms at 
present not suspected. 
In the following pages Myrmecia ( Promyrmecia ) aberrans 
Forel has been redescribed and the previously unknown male 
and female described and figured. The much confused species 
M. (P.) picta Smith has also been redescribed in detail and an 
attempt has been made to clear up the synonymy. A new 
species, Myrmecia (Promyrmecia) fucosa n. sp., has been included 
to show relationship with M. (P.) picta with which it is almost 
identical in colour, sculpture and pilosity, but with very different 
mandibles. Myrmecia esuriens Fab. has been redescribed and 
the previously unknown female compared with it. This female 
is ergatoid (worker-like) and easily overlooked. A new genus 
N othomyrmccia has been erected to contain a remarkable species 
from Western Australia. The position of this genus is doubtful. 
The tribe Myrmecii , to which it appears to belong naturally, 
is characterised as having narrow mandibles and a two-jointed 
pedicel. These characters cannot be applied to Nothomyrmecia; 
it may, therefore, be necessary to erect a new tribe, Nothomyr- 
mecii , to contain this genus. 
Ihe types of the new forms are in the National Museum, 
Melbourne. 
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