Formicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Honduras to southern Brazil. Costa Rica: in open and disturbed habitats throughout country, upper elevation limit 800 to 1100m, depending on local topography.
Identification
Minor worker: scapes with fine appressed pubescence, no erect setae; cheeks with sparse appressed pubescence only, no erect setae; mesosoma evenly arched; propodeum evenly convex, without differentiated dorsal and posterior faces; propodeum strongly laterally compressed, tectiform; propodeal suture distinct across dorsum and down to metathoracic spiracles, slightly breaking dorsal profile; first gastral tergite with abundant appressed yellow pubescence and moderately abundant erect setae; integument color dark brown to gray black, with variable amount of lighter yellow brown on malar spaces, clypeus, and scapes.
Major worker: head subquadrate; lateral margins of head devoid of projecting setae; clypeus with a pronounced median keel, and with a sparse stubble of about 6 short erect setae; face finely granular/punctate, opaque.
Similar species: JTL-011.
Natural History
This is an extremely common species in human altered landscapes throughout Costa Rica, in lowland to mid-elevation sites. It can be found in city parks in San Jose (the capital city), landscaped areas around hotels, coffee farms in Heredia, second growth vegetation and primary forest edge at La Selva and other lowland rainforest sites, seasonally dry habitats of Guanacaste Province, and in mangrove and other coastal habitats on both coasts. At La Selva it may also occur in the canopy of primary forest. Foragers are diurnal and very common on low vegetation. It is an opportunistic cavity nester. I have found nests in myrmecophytes (Cordia alliodora, Cecropia spp., and Triplaris melaenodendron), other live stems, and in dead branches of various sizes.
Type Data
Notes
Literature Cited
Mayr, G. 1870. Formicidae novogranadenses. Sitzungsber. K. Wiss. Math.-Naturwiss. Classe 61:370-417.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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