Dacetini, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
Mexican specimen
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Costa Rican specimen
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Additional images: Costa Rican worker, dorsal view (small, large).
Range
Mexico (type locality), Costa Rica. Costa Rica: northern Pacific lowlands.
Identification
Mandible short and curving downward in profile; lateral head capsule with the antennal scrobe mostly or entirely smooth and shining; propodeal spines present (former Glamyromyrmex); leading edge of scape lacking erect setae; disc of postpetiole in dorsal view very broadly U-shaped or V-shaped, with an extremely deeply concave anterior face; spongiform tissue absent from ventral surface of petiole, postpetiole and first gastral sternite; head in side view convex above and below, not flattened; about 8 erect setae near posterior margin of face and a few erect setae projecting from sides of head; petiolar node in dorsal view wider than long; gaster in lateral view tear drop shaped, strongly concave anteriorly near insertion of postpetiole. Also see Bolton (2000:176).
Similar species: rogata.
Natural History
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a static pressure mode of attack (Bolton 1999, 2000).
Bolton described the species based on material from cloud forest in southern Mexico. I have one specimen from Costa Rica that I tentatively identify as turpis. It was collected by Jenny Jacobs on Isla Pelada, one of the small offshore islands in the Guanacaste Conservation Area. It was in a litter sample.
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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