Ponerinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Costa Rica: mountainous regions of Cordillera de Tilar‡n and Cordillera Volcanica Central.
Identification
Mandible with one basal tooth and two apical teeth, no teeth or denticles in diastema between the basal and two apical teeth; anteromedian clypeal border triangular, strongly projecting, without spine; sculpture on face and mesosoma composed of sublinear striae, transversely arcuate on face; head relatively long and narrow, head width/head length less than 0.8.
Similar species: andersoni.
Natural History
All Simopelta species are nomadic group raiders, convergent with Ecitoninae. See additional information under genus account.
I know of this species from two collections. One was workers from a flight intercept trap, one of the Project ALAS samples from the 1100m site on the Barva transect in Braulio Carrillo National Park. The other was collected by Sean O'Donnell in San Gerardo, a 1200m site a few kilometers north of Monteverde. He observed a raiding column.
Comments
These may just be variants of andersoni. The only difference is the lack of additional teeth or denticles on the mandible. Among the many collections of andersoni there is a great deal of variation in the size and number of the extra teeth, and thus these may simply be the limit of that variation.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA. longinoj@evergreen.edu
Last modified: 5 April 2009.
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