Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Costa Rica: lowland Atlantic rainforest (Hitoy Cerere, Turrialba, La Selva).
Identification
Antennae 7 segmented; face densely punctulate, mat (not shiny); interantennal lamella subtriangular in lateral view; lamella relatively large compared to humilis, with ventral margin originating at anterior border of clypeus, such that in side view ventral portion of lamella is usually visible; clypeus projecting relatively farther beyond mandibles, compared to humilis; anterior border of clypeus somewhat truncate in face view; color uniformly red brown.
Natural History
Discothyrea are extremely small, cryptobiotic inhabitatants of forest leaf litter (see Genus Overview). For JTL-004 in Costa Rica, I have seen only 3 workers, in Winkler samples of forest floor leaf litter, from two Atlantic lowland sites:
Cartago: CATIE, nr. Turrialba, 9¡54'N, 83¡39'W, 550m, 13 May 1987 (coll. J. Longino). 1 worker.
Limon: Hitoy Cerere Biol. Reserve, 9¡40'N, 83¡02'W, 29 Aug 1985 (coll. J. Longino). 1 worker from 200m elevation site, 1 worker from 500m site.
Notes
The ALAS project at La Selva produced two alate queens, one from each of two canopy fogging events at dawn, that have a clypeal structure and surface sculpture identical to workers of JTL-004 and JTL-005. Unlike the workers, the queens have short, white, erect pubescence, and the petiole is strongly acuminate in side view. The queens have 8-segmented antennae, like JTL-005. I tentatively identify the queens as JTL-004 (which presumes a difference between workers and queens in antennal segment number) because of geographic proximity to the localities for JTL-004. Other possibilities are that these queens are JTL-005, or a third distinct species.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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