Attini, Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Trinidad (type locality), Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica. Costa Rica: Atlantic lowlands.
Identification
Metanotum with pair of longitudinal carinae (may be faint); anterior margin of clypeus slightly truncate or very weakly convex, opaque, lacking thin fringe of smooth cuticle; base of scape abruptly narrowing and curving under frontal lobe, forming angulate juncture where curved portion joins terete main shaft; propodeum smoothly rounded, with no trace of propodeal teeth; mesosoma length 1.9-2.3mm.
Similar species: Apterostigma chocoense has small propodeal teeth and is generally smaller.
Natural History
Apterostigma auriculatum is widespread in South America (Lattke 1997) and appears to reach its northern limit in Costa Rica. I know this species from two Costa Rican localities: La Selva Biological Station and Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve. Both are lowland rainforest sites, about 100m elevation. At Hitoy Cerere, I found a dealate queen while collecting at night. At La Selva, Ted Schultz found a colony (#290692-01) between leaves in leaf litter on the forest floor. The fungus nest was a sponge cake-like disc between the leaves, with no envelope. In a baiting study at La Selva, Nichole Barger collected workers at a honey/crisco bait.
It is curious that this species has not been collected in Winkler samples of sifted leaf litter, in spite of intensive sampling effort at La Selva and elsewhere in Costa Rica.
Comments
I formerly called this morphospecies JTL-016.
Literature Cited
Lattke, J. E. 1997. Revisi—n del gˇnero Apterostigma Mayr (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Arq. Zool. (S‹o Paulo) 34:121-221.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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