Dacetini, Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: worker, dorsal view (small, large).
Range
Costa Rica, Trinidad, Brazil, Amazonian Bolivia. In Costa Rica: mid-elevation Atlantic slope.
Identification
Apical fork of mandible with a single intercalary tooth; mandible with a strong preapical tooth, followed by one or more teeth and/or denticles that are variable in size and position; propodeal lamellae with strong dorsal and ventral teeth; gaster finely sericeous opaque, longitudinally striolate; gaster covered with brush of abundant long flagelliform setae. Also see Bolton (2000:566).
Head length 0.78-0.83mm, mandible length 0.52-0.56, CI 78-82, MI 66-69 (n=12 workers from 6 localities; Brown 1962).
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).
trinidadensis occurs in wet forest habitat in Costa Rica. It is known from arboreal foragers on low vegetation.
Selected Records
Rara Avis: worker on foliage; worker on Inga extrafloral nectary.
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. The neotropical species of the ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith: Group of saliens Mayr. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 62:55-62.
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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