Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Costa Rica south through tropical South America to Argentina (Kugler and Brown 1982). Costa Rica: southwestern lowlands and Osa Peninsula.
Identification
Pronotum with median eminence not or only very feebly differentiated; dorsolateral tubercles or angles obsolete.
Notes
At the time of Brown's (1958) revision this species was considered to be two, with edentatum restricted to southern South America, and morgani restricted to the Amazon and Orinoco basins. Kugler and Brown (1982) syonymized morgani under edentatum, and extended the known range of edentatum to include Panama (records from Barro Colorado Island) and Costa Rica (a record from near Rincon, on the Osa Peninsula). Brown stated that the species was poorly known, probably often overlooked in the field because of its similarity to the common ruidum.
A few additional Costa Rican records are added here: (1) I collected workers in a thin strip of cloud forest on the Cerro Rincon ridge crest, at 700m on the Osa Peninsula; (2) P. S. Ward collected workers around the headquarters of Carara Biological Reserve.
I observed a nest entrance in Guyana: workers were furtively entering a single round hole flush with the ground.
Type data
Ectatomma edentatum Roger 1863:173. Syntype worker: "La Plata-Staaten."
Literature Cited
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1958. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. II. Tribe Ectatommini (Hymenoptera). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 118:175-362.
Kugler, C., W. L. Brown, Jr. 1982. Revisionary and other studies on the ant genus Ectatomma, including the descriptions of two new species. Search: Agriculture (Cornell), No. 24, 8 pp.
Roger, J. 1863. Die neu aufgefuehrten Gattungen und Arten meines Formiciden-Verzeichnisses nebst Erganzung einiger frueher gegebenen Beschreibungen. Berl. Entomol. Z. 7:131-214.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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