Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
Range
Colombia (type locality), Panama (type locality of subspecies oxymora), Costa Rica, Guatemala. Costa Rica: southern Atlantic and southern Pacific lowlands.
Identification
Minor worker: head length 0.79mm, head width 0.80mm, scape length 0.85mm, Webers length 1.15mm (n=1). Head evenly rounded behind, with narrow vertex collar; clypeus anteriorly dentate; mesonotal suture moderately impressed, metanotal groove deeply impressed, juncture of posterior wall of suture and propodeal dorsum forming a conspicuous step; propodeal spines long; face densely punctatorugose; mesosoma entirely reticulate rugose, shiny; gastral dorsum smooth and shiny; dorsal pilosity abundant, long, flexuous; color red.
Major worker: head length 2.08mm, head width 2.05mm, scape length 0.84mm (n=1). Face shiny, reticulate rugose over most of medial area, with somewhat abrupt transition to smooth and shiny on vertex lobes; hypostomal margin with rounded median tooth, and two blunt, subtriangular teeth located about half distance from midline to teeth flanking inner mandible bases; dorsal pilosity abundant; head with abundant erect setae projecting from sides in face view.
Natural History
This species occurs in mature wet forest; nests in dead wood in the low arboreal zone; forages in the leaf litter and at extrafloral nectaries.
Selected Records
Hitoy Cerere: nocturnal forager.
Hitoy Cerere: mature wet forest; night collecting. Nest in 4cm dia vertical dead branch, 2m high, a few workers out foraging.
Corcovado National Park (Sirena): Winkler sample; at extrafloral nectaries of Passiflora.
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