Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Panama, Costa Rica.
Identification
Color dark brown; pronotal dorsum densely punctate, clypeus with pair of strong longitudinal carinae, middle and hind tibiae usually with one or more erect setae in addition to appressed pubescence.
Natural History
I know of two collections of this species from Costa Rica. The first was a collection I made in Corcovado National Park. I was in the canopy of a large Licania tree (Chrysobalanaceae). I found the workers sparsely distributed in tiny, connected chambers below and sometimes actually in flat, securely attached bark. The bark was on a 10cm diameter epiphyteless branch. One chamber covered two pink Coccoidea. The workers were very difficult to collect. When I pried a piece of bark loose, the one or two exposed ants ran immediately to crevices or tunnels no wider than the ants. I never found a chamber with brood or more than 3 adults.
The second collection was from La Selva Biological Station, where workers were obtained in one of the Project ALAS canopy fogging samples. The species occurred in only one of nearly 50 separately fogged tree crowns and has never been collected by other methods, so it is rare and/or difficult to sample by traditional methods.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA. longinoj@evergreen.edu
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