A418 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXIV, 
convex and slightly sinuate in the middle of its anterior border. Maxillary palpi 
rather long, 4-jointed as in the European form, but all the funicular joints of the 
antenne are distinctly longer than broad. Sculpture of body and pubescence as in 
meridionalis but the color of the head, thorax, coxee and petiole rather rich brownish 
red, the gaster dark brown, the mandibles, antenne and legs dull yellow. 
Female. Length: 1.8 mm. 
Resembling the worker, except in the structure of the thorax. Eyes scarcely 
larger than in the worker; ocelli minute. Corners of clypeus distinctly mflated. 
Mesonotum impressed in the middle behind. Wings hyaline, with pale veins and 
stigma. The fore wing differs from that of meridionalis in lacking the closed discal 
cell. The color, sculpture and pubescence of the body as in the worker. 
Described from two workers, one winged and four dedlated females 
taken by Dr. George Dimmock August 27, 1897, from a single colony on 
Mt. Tom, near Springfield, Mass. 
This insect presents an interesting problem. The seven species of 
Bothriomyrmex hitherto described are all from the Old World, three from 
the European and African littoral of the Mediterranean, and four from 
Southern Asia, Java and Australia. The Mediterranean species, as Emery 
has shown, have 4-jointed, those of Asia and Australia 2-jointed maxillary 
palpi. The species discovered by Dr. Dimmock agrees with the Mediterra- 
nean form in this character but the wings seem to be very different. As 
nearly as I can make out from the single rather immature specimen of 
diummocki possessing these organs, the venation is aberrant in lacking the 
discal cell. This I find to be the case also in a number of male specimens of 
the Australian pusillus Mayr. On receiving the specimens from Dr. 
Dimmock I doubted the occurrence of a Bothriomyrmex in Massachusetts 
ard surmised that there must be some mistake in the label, but he informs 
me that he certainly took the specimens on Mt. Tom. Then it occurred to 
me that the form might have been accidentally introduced from abroad, 
but the species is certainly not one of the seven described forms, six of which 
I have seen, and the description of B. walshi Forel of Bengal, the only one 
lacking in my collection, does not apply to the Massachusetts specimens. 
It seems probable therefore that Bothriomyrmex is really an indigenous 
North American genus, but one which is here very rare and on the road to 
extinction. This conclusion is the more likely since Santschi has shown 
that the Mediterranean species, at least, are temporary social parasites on 
Tapinoma erraticum after the manner of the species of Formica belonging 
to the rufa and microgyna groups. The fecundated diminutive queen of 
B. meridionalis and decapitans enters the Tapinoma nest, and after decapi- 
tating the queen of the colony, is adopted by the workers and becomes the 
mother of the future Bothriomyrmex community. We are therefore justi- 
fied in supposing that B. dimmocki behaves in a similar manner towards our 
