Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA. longinoj@evergreen.edu
4 March 1997
Identification
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6-segmented antenna; face punctate; sides of posterior half of mesosoma completely and densely punctulate; ventral petiolar spongiform appendages entirely obsolete; gaster with more than 10 erect, somewhat spoon-shaped setae; propodeal teeth broad at base and continuous with infradental lamellae; cephalic vertex with transverse row of 4 - 6 suberect hairs just behind the highest point, these hairs distinctly differentiated from the ground-pilosity; each pronotal humerus with single stout projecting hair (B. Bolton, pers. comm.).
Geography
Brazil (type loc.), Costa Rica, Mexico. In Costa Rica, known from Atlantic slope. Brown (1964) identified as schulzi a collection from Nevermann farm, a site in Limon Province, on the lower Rio Raventazon near Parismina. I collected a worker at 500m in the "Zona Protectora" of Braulio Carrillo National Park.
Natural History
Presumed predaceous.The types from Brazil were from under tree bark (Brown 1953). Material from Finca Monte Libano, Ocosingo Valley, Chiapas, Mexico was found by sweeping vegetation. A dealate queen from Pueblo Nuevo, near Tetzonapa, Veracruz, Mexico was in rain forest, under bark of large (2m diameter) rotten log with wood still hard (Brown 1964). The worker from Braulio Carrillo National Park was a nocturnal forager on the ground. The species has not occurred in numerous samples of sifted litter from the forest floor. These observations suggest that this species nests and forages in the low arboreal zone, just above the soil/litter layer.
How to collect
No reliable method is known. Sifting litter is not a good method. Sweeping vegetation and visual search are the methods that have yielded specimens, but the species is rarely encountered.
Page author: John T. Longino longinoj@evergreen.edu
Last modified: 03/04/1997