Dacetini, Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: worker dorsal view.
Range
Costa Rica: known from two sites in the Cordillera Volcanica Central.
Identification
Apical fork of mandible with no intercalary teeth; mandible with no preapical teeth; postpetiole swollen, its dorsum smooth and shining; setae on gaster straight, not bent or coachwhip-like. Also see Bolton (2000:509).
Head length 0.64-0.66mm, mandible length 0.41-0.42, CI 78-80, MI 63-64 (n=5 workers from 1 locality; Brown 1962).
Similar species: elongata, precava.
Natural History
Brown and Wilson (1959) summarize the genus as follows:
"Widespread in tropics and warm temperate areas. Primarily forest-dwelling; some species occur in grassland and arid scrub. ... Nests mostly in soil and rotting wood; a few species live in arboreal plant cavities in tropical rain forest. Foraging hypogaeic to epigaeic-arboreal. Food: most species are collembolan feeders; a few are polyphagous predators or occasionally feed on sugary substances..."
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a kinetic mode of attack (Bolton 1999).
consanii may be arboreal, since it has been collected under epiphytes.
Selected Records
La Palma, 1400m (a site about 20km NE of San Jose, at the edge of Braulio Carrillo National Park): type collection by Tristan.
Braulio Carrillo National Park at 1830m: mature wet forest. Colony under moss mat in large, old treefall.
Literature Cited
Bolton, B. 1999. Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J. Nat. Hist. 33:1639-1689.
Bolton, B. 2000. The ant tribe Dacetini, with a revision of the Strumigenys species of the Malagasy Region by Brian L. Fisher, and a revision of the Austral epopostrumiform genera by Steven O. Shattuck. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 65:1-1028.
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1954(1953). The neotropical species of the ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith: Group of elongata Roger. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 61:189-200.
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1962. The neotropical species of the ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith: Synopsis and keys to the species. Psyche 69:238-267.
Brown, W. L., Jr., Wilson, E. O. 1959. The evolution of the dacetine ants. Quarterly Review of Biology 34:278-294.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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