Formicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: minor worker scape (original, reduced).
Range
Costa Rica: lowland wet forest throughout the country, to 1000m elevation (La Selva, 500m in Braulio Carrillo National Park, Rara Avis, Hitoy Cerere, Corcovado, Arenal, Tortuguero, Penas Blancas, Pitilla).
Identification
Minor worker: propodeum very narrow and elongate, in cross section tectiform (tent-like, like an inverted "V"), without a distinct angle separating lateral and dorsal faces; clypeus with median longitudinal keel; mesosoma very elongate and narrow in lateral view; abundant erect setae on sides of head, mesosomal dorsum, and gaster; scapes with abundant long suberect pubescence, length of pubescence about half the width of scape; color red brown with lighter colored coxae, gaster darker brown with yellow maculae.
Major worker: approaching Pseudocolobopsis in shape.
Natural History
This species is one of the more common large carpenter ants in Costa Rica. It inhabits mature wet forest. Workers are encountered frequently as nocturnal foragers, and they are also relatively abundant in fogging samples and Malaise traps.
I have seen nests three times, and they have all been in the context of surveys of Cecropia ants. One nest was in a sapling along a roadside. In another case I pulled down a Cecropia obtusifolia branch and it contained workers of both Azteca alfari and Camponotus JTL-005. The third nest was at Rara Avis. I dissected a 4-5m tall Cecropia obtusifolia tree. It had heavy Atta damage and almost no foliage. The branch tips contained scattered groups of workers and brood of Azteca alfari, but the entire main trunk of the tree was occupied by a giant Camponotus nest.
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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