Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Mexico to Argentina. Costa Rica: Atlantic lowlands.
Identification
Minor worker: head length 0.89mm, head width 0.87mm, scape length 0.92mm, Webers length 1.14mm (n=1). Head flattened, only weakly convex behind; eyes small, 10-15 facets; promesonotum evenly arched, mesonotal suture weak; propodeal spines of moderate length; face shiny, coarsely reticulate rugose; mesosomal dorsum coarsely reticulate rugose; katepisternum and lateral propodeum foveolate; gastral dorsum smooth and shiny; dorsal pilosity abundant, long, somewhat stiff, black; patches of yellowish lanose pubescence on anterior pronotum and ventral surface of petiole; color red.
Major worker: head length 3.19mm, head width 2.92mm, scape length 1.30mm (n=1). Face shiny, longitudinally carinate, becoming reticulate rugose on vertex lobes; hypostomal margin deeply excavate, with a blunt median tooth, and two large, oblique teeth flanking inner mandible bases; dorsal pilosity abundant; head with abundant short black setae projecting from sides in face view.
Natural History
Inhabits mature wet forest.
Selected Records
La Selva: Winkler samples.
La Selva: a foundress with small workers was observed in a dead stick in the leaf litter (Chris Thompson study).
La Selva: Longino was collecting at night, and observed minor workers and soldiers pouring over a section of trail. There were numerous columns on the trail surface. Many of the workers were going in and out of a 1cm diameter hole with abundant excavated soil piled to one side of the hole. Other similar holes were further along the trail, but there was no activity around them.
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
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