W. L. Brown, Jr.
A New Stictoponera, with Notes on the Genus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).
Psyche 54(4):263-264, 1947.

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A NEW STICTOPONERA, WITH NOTES ON
THE GENUS (HYMENOPTERA : FORI\IICIDB)
BY WILLIAM L. BROWN, JR.
Biological Laboratories, Harvard University Among ants collected in Western China during the years 1944 and 1945,I have two specimens of a new Stic- toponera collected on a high, sharp ridge near Chao Kung Mountain and about one and one-half days' travel afoot west of Kuanhsien, Szechuan Province, China. The ele- vation was between 5000 and 7500 feet, probably closer to the higher altitude, in the zone of dense bamboo growth. The ants were taken together in the thin bamboo humus at the ridge summit. They moved very slowly, and re- sembled our species of Proceratium in their sluggish loco- motion and in feigning death at the approach of danger. Stictoponera panda new species
Holotyne worker.
Size, excluding mandibles, 5.2 mm.
Length of thorax, Weber's measurement, 1.8 mm. Closely related to taivanensis Wheeler in possessing a high petiolar node with steep anterior and posterior faces. It differs from taivanensis mainly in its larger size, broader head (cephalic index, or greatest breadth of head expressed as a percentage of greatest length, mandibles excluded, is 93) and its different sculpture and color. The posterior corners of the head are also a little more acute. The eyes small, like those of taivanensis, with 6 to 8 ommatidia in the greatest diameter, placed near the middle of the sides of the head.
The frontal carinae are slightly farther apart, and the longitudinal costulae arising between them and continuing back across the vertex are finer and more numerous (four distinct costulse in taivanensis, at least twice that many in panda, the more laterally placed costulse with scattered shallow pits separating them). Clypeus very finely longi- tudinally striate, its median groove shallow and not bounded by definite carinse laterally, somewhat shining. The declivity of the epinotum much less distinctly mar- gined, the epinotal teeth obsolete, cross-rug% on the face ft 263




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264 Psyche [ Dec.
of the declivity much reduced and less distinct. For the rest, the sculpture is quite similar to that of taivanensis, but throughout lower and less distinct, especially of the dorsum of the thorax and first gastric segment. Pilosity slightly shorter, more delicate and more abun- dant than in taivanensis. Color deep reddish ferrugine- OUS, the node of the petiole slightly infuscated, antennae and mandibles lighter, legs still lighter and more yel- lowish.
Holotype worker.-Taken near Chao Kung Mountain, west of Kuanhsien, Szechuan Province, China, Sept. 4, 1945. (W. L. Brown, Jr.) Type to be deposited in the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Paratype worker.-One specimen. Total length ex- cluding mandibles, 4.8 mm. Cephalic index, 92. Length of thorax, Weber's measurement, 1.7 rnm. Otherwise quite similiar. This specimen collected with the holotype to be deposited in the U. S. National Museum. This species is presumably different from binghami Forel, of which I have not seen specimens, in the size of the eyes, in sculpture, and in the shape of the petiole. Bkghami is from Lower Burma, taivanensis from Formosa.
Stictoponera menadens& subsp. minor Fore1 This form has been listed as a variety of subsp. bicolor Emery, from which it differs so markedly in color, if the specimen from Dong Mo, Indo-China is any criterion, that it should be regarded at the very least as of subspecific rank. This specimen, collected by Silvestri and now in the Wheeler Collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, is similar to bicolor in size and sculpture; but is a very light tannish-yellow in color, the gaster very slightly darker. The first funicular joint is more slender than in the Wheeler Collection specimens of menadensis Mayr or its subsp. bicolor.
Another series of workers from Borneo in the Wheeler collection are large for Stictoponera, ferrugineous red, and have the second gastric segment strongly costate. The genus is in such confusion that I am afraid of de- scribing them as new without reliable examples of costata Emery, to which they are probably most closely related. å




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