Dacetini, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: worker, dorsal view (small, large).
Range
Costa Rica: Atlantic lowlands.
Identification
Flagellum of antenna enlarged and thickened compared to most other Pyramica species; antenna appearing 4-segmented (segments 3-5 fused into a single cylindrical structure, with suture lines between the original segments barely visible); body generally covered with short, spatulate, fully appressed setae; erect setae almost completely absent, and in particular none of the common sensory setae found on most other species (none on leading edge of scape, side of head, scrobal apex, pronotal humeri, tibiae, gastral dorsum).
Natural History
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a static pressure mode of attack (Bolton 1999, 2000).
This species is known from a single worker. It was collected from a Winkler sample of sifted leaf litter from the forest floor. It was in one of the samples from Conservation International's TEAM project (AMI-2-W-076-01). It was from a sampling plot that is just beyond the south border of La Selva, near the trail to Magsasay.
Comments
Given the intensive litter sampling that has been carried out in the La Selva area for over a decade, this species is either very rare or of specialized nesting habits.
This specimen is definitely a new species. Its closest relative is probably P. minuscula from southern Brazil (another species known from a single specimen).
Literature Cited
Bolton, B. 1999. Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J. Nat. Hist. 33:1639-1689.
Bolton, B. 2000. The ant tribe Dacetini, with a revision of the Strumigenys species of the Malagasy Region by Brian L. Fisher, and a revision of the Austral epopostrumiform genera by Steven O. Shattuck. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 65:1-1028.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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