Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Southern Mexico to Southern Brazil, Bolivia (Brown 1976). Costa Rica: throughout in wet to dry forest, to 1200m.
Identification
The smallest Odontomachus species in Costa Rica (head length including mandibles less than 2.5mm); face to near margin of vertex striate; color light or dark brown; top of first gastral segment very densely punctulate, opaque, longitudinally striate over a posterior portion of variable extent.
Natural History
This is a relatively common species in Costa Rica, as revealed by its frequent presence in samples of sifted leaf litter from the forest floor (Winkler samples). However, I have rarely seen nests. I once observed a nest under a stone in the moist forest/dry forest ecotone at Maritza station in the Guanacaste Conservation Area. I once observed a dealate queen that fell out of a Cephaelis stem I was dissecting in Braulio Carrillo National Park.
Type Data
Odontomachus haematodes r. meinerti Forel 1905:156. Syntype worker: Venezuela, Bolivar: Las Trincheras.
Odontomachus haematoda subsp. minuta Luederwaldt 1918:36. Syntype worker: Brazil, Mato Grosso. First available use of Odontomachus haematodes subsp. pubescens var. minuta Emery 1894:146.
This species has been known as O. minutus until recently, with meinerti a junior synonym. When ant taxonomists began enforcing the rule that quadrinomials are unavailable names (Bolton 1995), meinerti became the senior synonym.
Literature Cited
Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1976. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, tribe Ponerini, subtribe Odontomachiti. Section A. Introduction, subtribal characters. Genus Odontomachus. Studia Entomol. 19:67-171.
Emery, C. 1894. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. VI-XVI. Boll. Soc. Entomol. It. 26:137-241.
Forel, A. 1905. Miscellanea myrmecologiques II (1905). Annls Soc. Entomol. Belg. 49:155-185.
Luederwaldt, H. 1918. Notas myrmecologicas. Revista do Museu Paulista 10:29-64.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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