Neostruma zeteki Brown 1959
Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
Specimen: Costa Rica, Prov. Puntarenas: Osa Peninsula, JTL2769-s, INBIOCRI001283408. Image by J. Longino.
Identification
Approximately 7 or fewer preapical denticles on mandible (not including basal), these gradually decreasing in size toward apex; propodeal suture moderately impressed; total head length < 0.8mm; color light yellow-brown; pair of mesonotal setae short and inconspicuous, tilted rearward.
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Specimen: Costa Rica, Prov. Puntarenas: Osa Peninsula, JTL2769-s, INBIOCRI001283408. Image by J. Longino. |
Range
Costa Rica (Atlantic and southern Pacific lowlands), Colombia, Panama.
Natural History
Brown (1959) characterizes the genus as a whole as forming
"small colonies, chiefly in the leaf litter of rain forest or tropical evergreen forest, and nests occupy cavities in rotting twigs, pieces of bark or similar forest-floor vegetable debris... The food... consists primarily of small entomobryomorph Collembola and possibly some other minute terrestrial arthropods as well. Hunting behavior is like that of Smithistruma rather than like the Strumigenys so far studied."
Selected Records
Carara Biological Reserve: Winkler sample.
Osa Peninsula: Winkler samples.
La Selva: alate queen from a canopy fogging sample; worker from a Berlese sample.
Literature Cited
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1959. A revision of the Dacetine ant genus Neostruma. Breviora 107:1-13.
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505
USA.
longinoj@evergreen.edu
Last modified: 10 June 1997