Dacetini, Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: worker dorsal view.
Range
Costa Rica (northern Pacific lowlands).
Identification
Apical fork of mandible with two intercalary teeth; a conspicuous preapical tooth just proximal to the apical fork, and a preapical denticle about one third of mandible length from apical fork; outstanding setal pairs on sides of head, humeral angles, and mesonotum all similar, stiff and weakly thickened apically; gaster finely granular, opaque; erect setae on gaster spatulate; posterior face of petiolar node quadrate in posterior view, with produced anterolateral corners. See also Bolton (2000:523).
Head length 0.585mm, head width 0.492, mandible length 0.333, CI 84, MI 57.
Similar species: louisianae.
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).
dubitata inhabits dry forest leaf litter on the forest floor.
Selected Records
Winkler samples from Santa Rosa National Park ("bosque humedo"), La Pacifica.
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. 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. Quart. Rev. Biol. 34:278-294.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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