Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Identification
Minor worker: head length 0.55mm, head width 0.50mm, scape length 0.47mm, Webers length 0.66mm (n=1). Head rounded to somewhat flattened behind; promesonotum evenly arched, mesonotal suture absent; humeri projecting as tubercles, each bearing a long seta; propodeal spines long, projecting posteriorly; face, mesosoma, and gaster largely smooth and shining, with faint sculpture on margins of katepisternum; dorsal pilosity abundant, long, flexuous; color red brown.
Major worker: head length 1.18mm, head width 0.94mm, scape length 0.48mm (n=1). Anterior two thirds of face longitudinally striatorugose, posterior third smooth and shining; anterolateral margins of head flaring outward; antennal scrobes in the form of broad, shallow depressions, not sharply delimited; surface of scrobe smooth and shiny, unlike surrounding striatorugose sculpture; anterior two thirds of face yellow, posterior third brown; hypostomal margin with very small rounded medial tooth, and pair of larger sharp teeth about one third distance to recessed teeth flanking mandible bases (Figure); dorsal pilosity abundant; head with abundant, short, suberect setae projecting from sides of head in face view.
Range
Costa Rica, Trinidad, Guyana (type locality), Brazil (Amazonian Brazil and Mato Grosso), Ecuador, Peru. Costa Rica: Atlantic slope.
Natural History
This species is found in mature wet forest habitats. It nests in the low arboreal zone, in dead sticks, in dead cavities in live plants, and as an occasional opportunist in domatia of myrmecophytes.
Selected Records
Hitoy Cerere: primary wet forest at river edge; a nest in a rotten cavity in a live branch.
La Selva: primary wet forest; nest in a dead stick.
Page authors:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA. longinoj@evergreen.edu
Stefan Cover, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138 USA. scover@oeb.harvard.edu
Last modified: 2 September 2003.
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