86 
Psyche 
[ June-September 
THE ANT CAMPONOTUS ( MYRMEPOMIS ) 
SERIC EIVEN TRIS GUERIN AND 
ITS MIMIC 
By William Morton Wheeler 
Camponotus ( Myrmepomis ) sericeiventris, owing to its 
size, wide distribution and dense covering of silver or 
golden pubescence, is one of the handsomest and most con- 
spicuous ants of the American tropics. It has not been 
carefully studied, however, though it was originally 
described a century ago 1 and has since been repeatedly 
noticed by myrmecologists. When some years ago the 
huge and unwieldy genus Camponotus was divided into 
subgenera, sericeiventris , together with several species from 
the Ethiopian and Malagasy Regions, was assigned by Forel 
to the subgenus Myrmepomis. Later I transferred all the 
species, except; sericeiventris , to my subgenus Myrmo- 
piromis, thus leaving Myrmepomis as a monotypic group. 
In 1907 Forel 2 distinguished a subspecies rex, and pub- 
lished some remarks on its distribution and that of the 
typical form. On recently revising all the specimens that 
have been accumulating for many years in my collection and 
in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, I find that there are 
several varieties of each of the two forms and that workers 
of both exhibit a peculiar polymorphism. There are not 
only major, media and minima phases, but a distinct 
maxima which has not been described. Its head is decidedly 
larger and somewhat differently shaped from that of the 
1 As Formica sericeiventris by Guerin-Meneville (in Duperry, 
Voyage de le Coquille. Zool. Vol. 2, 1830, p. 205). It was described 
and figured three years later by Perty (Delectus Anim. Articul. 12, 
1833, p. 134) as Formica cuneata. 
2 Formiciden aus deni Naturhistorischen Museum in Hamburg. II 
Feil. Mitteil. Naturh. Museum Harnb. 26, 1907, p. 13. 
