Odontomachus meinerti Forel 1905

Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia

worker petiole, lateral view

worker lateral view

Range

Southern Mexico to Southern Brazil, Bolivia (Brown 1976). Costa Rica: throughout in wet to dry forest, to 1200m.

Identification

The smallest Odontomachus species in Costa Rica (head length including mandibles less than 2.5mm); face to near margin of vertex striate; color light or dark brown; top of first gastral segment very densely punctulate, opaque, longitudinally striate over a posterior portion of variable extent.

Natural History

This is a relatively common species in Costa Rica, as revealed by its frequent presence in samples of sifted leaf litter from the forest floor (Winkler samples). However, I have rarely seen nests. I once observed a nest under a stone in the moist forest/dry forest ecotone at Maritza station in the Guanacaste Conservation Area. I once observed a dealate queen that fell out of a Cephaelis stem I was dissecting in Braulio Carrillo National Park.

Type Data

Odontomachus haematodes r. meinerti Forel 1905:156. Syntype worker: Venezuela, Bolivar: Las Trincheras.

Odontomachus haematoda subsp. minuta Luederwaldt 1918:36. Syntype worker: Brazil, Mato Grosso. First available use of Odontomachus haematodes subsp. pubescens var. minuta Emery 1894:146.

This species has been known as O. minutus until recently, with meinerti a junior synonym. When ant taxonomists began enforcing the rule that quadrinomials are unavailable names (Bolton 1995), meinerti became the senior synonym.

Literature Cited

Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Brown, W. L., Jr. 1976. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, tribe Ponerini, subtribe Odontomachiti. Section A. Introduction, subtribal characters. Genus Odontomachus. Studia Entomol. 19:67-171.

Emery, C. 1894. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. VI-XVI. Boll. Soc. Entomol. It. 26:137-241.

Forel, A. 1905. Miscellanea myrmecologiques II (1905). Annls Soc. Entomol. Belg. 49:155-185.

Luederwaldt, H. 1918. Notas myrmecologicas. Revista do Museu Paulista 10:29-64.


Page author:

John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu


Date of this version: 7 January 1999
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