Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Panama, Costa Rica. Costa Rica: Cordillera de Talamanca and C. Volcanica Central.
Identification
Antennae 12-segmented; petiolar peduncle longer than node; dorsal profile of mesosoma forming an unbroken, somewhat flat convexity; face and mesosoma coarely rugose; face and mesosoma black; petiole, postpetiole, and anterior portion of fourth abdominal tergite contrastingly brown.
Natural History
This species is a montane specialist. One of the INBio parataxonomists, A. Picado, collected a worker at 2400m on Cerro Gemelos in the C. de Talamanca. The ALAS project collected abundant workers at the 2000m site on the Barva Transect in Braulio Carrillo National Park. It was one of the most abundant species there (in a place where ants in general were rarely seen). The lowest elevation record is 1800m on the Barva Transect.
I have collected the species nesting in the base of a bromeliad in an old treefall, in the live stems of epiphytic Araliaceae in a treefall, and under an epiphyte mat in the same treefall. The latter two collections both contained single dealate queens and most of the nest contents were examined, suggesting that the species is monogynous.
Comments
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA. longinoj@evergreen.edu
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