Title: The Cambridge natural history
Identifier: cu31924024535480 (find matches)
Year: 1895 (1890s)
Authors: Harmer, S. F. (Sidney Frederic), Sir, 1862- ed; Shipley, A. E. (Arthur Everett), Sir, 1861-1927. ed
Subjects: Zoology
Publisher: (London, Macmillan and Co. , Limited; New York, The Macmillan Company
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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DORYLIDES WANDERING ANTS I7S We have reserved to the end of the ants the consideration of the two groups Dorylides and Amblyoponides, recent investigations having rendered it somewhat doubtful whether they can be maintained as distinct from Ponerides. The chief character of the Dorylides is that the males are inu.ch less ant-like in form than they are in the other groups, and that the distinction between the females and workers are enormous. The little that is known as to the males and females of this group suggests the view that these sexes may offer sufficient reason for keep- ing the Dorylides as a group distinct from the other ants; but it must be admitted that it is very difficult to find satisfactory characters to distinguish the workers of the Dorylides in some cases from the Ponerides, in others (Eciton) from the Myrmicides.-' The Dorylides are of great interest, for they exhibit the remark- able phenomenon of a nomadic -^ffl^^ social life, accompanied by im- perfect sight in the wanderers. The sub-family includes two apparently distinct groups: (1) the Ecitonini, peculiar to the New World, and having a close relationship with the Myrmicides ; and (2) the Dorylini existing chiefly in the eastern hemisphere, and related closely by its workers to the Ponerides and 'Ambly- oponides. (i.) The Ecitonini consist of the species of the genus Eciton, the wandering ants of America, and of Labi- dus, which there is now good reason for believing to con- sist of the males of Eciton. The female is still uncertain. The Eciton are nomad ants having no fixed abode, but wandering from place to place in search of prey, and forming temporary resting-places. The ' For a valuable revision of Dorylus and its allies see Emery, Zool. Jahrh. Syst. viii. 1895, pp. 685, etc. We, however, doubt the wisdom of extending the sub- family so as to include Cerapachys, Parasyscia, etc.
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Fig. 78. -Various forms of worker of Eciton hamatum. Guatemala.

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