Dacetini, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Full Range: Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Trinidad, Brazil, Peru.
Costa Rican Range: Atlantic lowlands.
Identification
Mandibles in side view straight, not broadly curved ventrally; mandibles relatively short, subtriangular, much of the apical portion meeting along a serially toothed masticatory margin when closed (former Smithistruma); face punctate; leading edge of scape with a row of conspicuous projecting curved hairs, of which those distal to the subbasal bend distinctly curve toward the base of the scape; sides of posterior half of mesosoma completely and densely punctulate; ventral petiolar spongiform appendages entirely obsolete; disc of postpetiole reticulate-punctate; gaster with more than 10 erect, somewhat spoon-shaped setae; propodeal teeth broad at base and continuous with infradental lamellae; cephalic vertex with transverse row of 4 - 6 suberect hairs just behind the highest point, these hairs distinctly differentiated from the ground-pilosity; each pronotal humerus with single stout projecting hair. Also see Bolton (2000:225).
Natural History
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a static pressure mode of attack (Bolton 1999).
The types from Brazil were from under tree bark (Brown 1953). Material from Finca Monte Libano, Ocosingo Valley, Chiapas, Mexico was found by sweeping vegetation. A dealate queen from Pueblo Nuevo, near Tetzonapa, Veracruz, Mexico was in rain forest, under bark of large (2m diameter) rotten log with wood still hard (Brown 1964). A worker I collected in Braulio Carrillo National Park was a nocturnal forager on the ground. The species has not occurred in numerous samples of sifted litter that I and others have taken from forest floor habitats. These observations suggest that this species nests and forages in the low arboreal zone, just above the soil/litter layer.
Original Description
Strumigenys schulzi Emery 1894:213, pl. 1, fig. 7. Syntype worker: Brazil, Para, Belem, 23/3.93, No. 166 (A. Schultz) [MCSN].
Strumigenys (Cephaloxys) studiosi Weber 1934:44. Syntype worker: Costa Rica, Limon, Rio Sixaola, 4.viii.1924, no. 176 (G. C. Wheeler) [MCZ, USNM]. Synonymy by Bolton 2000.
Later moved to Smithistruma, then Pyramica. See Bolton (2000) for complete synonymy.
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.
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1953. Revisionary studies of the ant tribe Dacetini. Am. Mid. Nat. 50:1-137.
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1964. The ant genus Smithistruma: a first supplement to the World revision (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Trans. Am. Entomol. Soc. 89:183-200.
Emery, C. 1894. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. VI-XVI. Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 26:137-241.
Weber, N. A. 1934. Notes on neotropical ants, including the descriptions of new forms. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 4:22-59.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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