Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Belize to Brazil (Lattke 1992, 1995). Costa Rica: throughout.
Identification
AT4 strongly vaulted and much inflated; sculpture on AT4 uniformly granular and smooth; head width less than 1.0mm, length of mesosoma (WL) less than 1.6mm.
Notes
This is a common species in Costa Rica. It occurs regularly in Winkler samples of sifted litter from the forest floor. I have never collected it any other way, and Lattke (1992) states that the nest is unknown. The sites where I have collected it include dry forest in Santa Rosa, montane sites to 1700m in the Cordilleras of Guanacaste, Tilaran, and Talamancas, wet forests of southwestern Costa Rica (Carara, Manuel Antonio, Corcovado), and wet forest of the southern Atlantic lowlands (Hitoy Cerere). Oddly, I have not encountered it at La Selva or in Braulio Carrillo, in spite of intensive collecting in that area.
Type data
Alfaria minuta [printed as minnta, a typographical error] Emery 1896:106. Syntype queen: Bolivia, "Chaco boliviano" (colln. Staudinger & Bang-Haas).
Literature Cited
Emery, C. 1896. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. XVII-XXV. Bolletino della Societa Entomologica Italiana 28:33-107, pl. 1.
Lattke, J. E. 1992. Revision of the minuta group of the genus Gnamptogenys. Deutsche entomologische Zeitschrift 39:123-129.
Lattke, J. E. 1995. Revision of the ant genus Gnamptogenys in the New World (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 4:137-193.
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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