Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
(Scanned image from Kempf and Brown 1968; click on image for higher resolution scan.)
Range
Costa Rica. Known only from the type series from near Guapiles.
Identification
Petiolar node "bun-shaped," broad at the base, with anterior and posterior faces converging to a rounded summit; mid-tibia with a pectinate apical spur; HW (without eyes) 1.50mm.
Natural History
Members of the genus Proceratium are generally thought to be specialized predators of spider eggs (Brown 1980). Regarding goliath, Kempf and Brown (1968) describe the collection of the type series as follows:
Holotype, together with 5 paratypes and another worker that was dissected in the field, collected in disturbed wet lowland rain forest about 2 km beyond (NW of) the steel bridge over the Rio Toro Amarillo, near Guapiles, Limon Province, Costa Rica (W. L. Brown, Jr., leg.) on 3 and 4.III.1966. The ants were in and under a fragment of rotten log about 75 cm long and 35 cm thick that was found lying in the middle of a wide, recently cleared trail. The same piece of wood held pockets containing 20-30 or more workers of Basiceros manni, but although the log was reduced to small fragments over two days, the queen and brood of neither species could be found. The Proceratium, being so unusually large, and also more active than one finds other members of the genus, was originally taken for Gnamptogenys (=Alfaria) simulans.
Type data
Proceratium goliath Kempf and Brown 1968:94. Holotype worker: Costa Rica, Prov. Limon, Rio Toro Amarillo, near Guapiles (W. L. Brown, Jr.) [MCZC].
Literature Cited
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1980 ("1979"). A remarkable new species of Proceratium, with dietary and other notes on the genus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche (Camb.) 86:337-346.
Kempf, W. W., Brown, W. L., Jr. 1968. Report on some Neotropical ant studies. Pap. Avulsos Zool. (Sao Paulo) 22:89-102.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA. longinoj@evergreen.edu
Go back to top