W. M. Wheeler.
On the Ant Qenus Chrysapace Crawley.
Psyche 31:224-225, 1924.

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224 Psyche [October
ON THE ANT-GENUS CHRYSAPACE CRAWLEY.
Bussey Institution, Harvard University.
Very recently Mr. W. C. Crawley has described a beautifully sculptured Ponerine ant from Sumatra as Chrysapace jacobsoni gen. et sp. nov. (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (9) 13, 1924, p. 380). Among a lot of Formicidse generously sent me by Dr. K. W. Dammerman of the Buitenzorg Museum I find a specimen of this same insect, which was taken by Karny at Wai Lima, Lam- pong, Southern Sumatra, Nov. 12, 1921. It agrees in all respects with Crawley's description and figure and awaited description in my collection under the label "Cerapachys mirandus sp. nov." Crawley's description of the sculpture is somewhat incomplete. In my specimen, which like his possesses three small, closely ap- proximated ocelli and is therefore apparently an ergatomorphic female, the ventral surface of the post-petiole is very regularly, transversely costate and the sternites of the second, third and fourth gastric segments, which are exposed, have their basal surfaces developed as very finely striated stridulatory organs and their apical borders pitted, or cribrate. Crawley calls attention to the affinities of this insect with Cerapachys F. Smith and Phyrncaces Emery but decides to make it the type of a distinct genus. In my opinion the matter is not quite so simple. In the Ponerinse of t2he "Genera Insectorurn" (1911) Emery recognized Cerapachys and Phyracaces as indepen- dent genera, the differences being t-hat in the former the worker and female have the terminal antennal joint enlarged to form a distinct club and the petiole and postpetiole non-marginate on the sides, whereas, in the latter the terminal antennal joint is not enlarged to form a club but tapers to a blunt point and the sides of the petiole and sometimes also of the postpetiole are marginate. Crawley's genus is clearly intermediate in that the body is that of a Cerapachys s. sir. while the antennae are those of a Phyracaces. The peculiar sculpture cannot be regarded as a generic character and the narrowness of the petiole and



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19241 On the Ant-genus Chrysapace Craw ley 225 postpetiole recurs in the East Indian Cerapachys antennatus F. Smith, which happens to be the type of the genus. Emery seems to have regarded the non-clavate antennae and margination of the petiole as more important characters than the number of antenna1 joints since he made Phyracaces an independent genus and separated Cerapachys into four sub- genera on this character, namely Cerapachys sens, str. with 12, Parasyscia with 11, Oocercea with 10 and Syscia with 9 joints. But the finding of an intermediate form like Chrysapace brings us face t'o face with a dilemma. Either we must raise all the subgenera mentioned to generic rank and retain Chrysapace and Phyracaces as independent genera or we must reduce these two genera to subgeneric rank under Cerapachys. The "splitters" will probably adopt the former, the "lumpers" the latter alter- native. Should the lumpers carry the day the specific name of Crawley's species will have to be changed, because Fore1 had previously described a Cerapachys jacobsoni from Java (Notes Leyden Mus. 34, 1912, p. 103). In that case I suggest that the Sumatran ant be called Cerapachys (Chrysapace) crawleyi nom. nov. It is, however, not improbable that we shall do more splitt'ing in the Cerapachyinae in the near future. The subfamily is proving tro be more extensive than we had supposed. Mr. James dark and I have recently brought to light quite a number of species of Eusphinctus and Phyracaces in Australia and there are several diverse, undescribed species of Cerapachys and Phy- racaces from the East Indies in my c~llect~ion. The sexual phases, larvss and pupae of the great majority of Cerapachyinee are quite unknown. A knowledge of these phases and stages will probably aid materially in a final revision of the genera and subgenera of the subfamily.




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