Dacetini, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional Images: line drawing of worker mandible (image).
Range
Full Range: Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador.
Costa Rican Range: Atlantic slope to 1600m, Cordillera de Talamanca to Cordillera de Tilaran.
Identification
Mandibles in full-face view linear, elongate and narrow; ventral surface of petiole without spongiform tissue; leading edge of scape with freely projecting hairs; inner margin of mandible without a tooth or distinctly enlarged denticle at or near the midlength; labral lobes short, trigger hairs at apices of lobes long; outer margins of mandibles bowed; mandibles long (MI 67). Also see Bolton (2000:189).
Measurements: head length 0.754mm, mandible length 0.504, head width 0.648, CI 86, MI 67 (n=1).
Natural History
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a static pressure mode of attack (Bolton 1999).
This species occurs in wet forest habitats, from lowlands to cloud forest. It is most abundant in mid-elevation and cloud forest sites, decreasing in abundance at lower elevations. It inhabits leaf litter on the forest floor.
Selected Records
Winkler samples from La Selva, Rara Avis, Braulio Carrillo National Park to 1200m, Turrialba, Penas Blancas Valley, Monteverde. Bolton (2000) also reports the species from Wilson Botanical Garden (Las Cruces) in the Cordillera de Talamanca.
Original Description
Pyramica lalassa Bolton 2000:189, fig. 134. Holotype worker: Panama, Bocas del Toro, 12-14.vii.1987, 1050m, 8 degrees 47'N, 82 degrees 12'W, premontane rain forest (D. M. Olson) [BMNH]. Paratype workers: same data as holotype; Costa Rica, Heredia Prov., La Selva, 14.iii.1987, 50m, 10 degrees 26'N, 83 degrees 59'W, #241 (D. M. Olson); Prov. Heredia, 17km S. Pto. Viejo, 10 degrees 18'N, 84 degrees 02'W, 550m, 12.ix.1985, #1088-s (J. Longino); Prov. Puntarenas, Monteverde, 1500m, 10 degrees 18'N, 84 degrees 48'W, 14.xii.1987, #1980-s (J. Longino) [UCD, BMNH, INBIO, MCZ].
Literature Cited
Bolton, B. 1999. Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Natural History 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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