Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
|
|
|
Range
Costa Rica: wet forest throughout the country, sea level to 1600m cloud forest.
Identification
Color yellow; head long and relatively thin; clypeal carinae strongly divergent, ending in very short teeth; mandible with basal tooth a small dentical, distant from larger third tooth; pilosity relatively even and short; propodeum with well differentiated dorsal and posterior faces; promesonotum and dorsal face of propodeum forming single convexity; metanotal groove often U-shaped.
There is a tendency for lowland specimens to have the mesosomal profile somewhat flat and the metanotal groove broadly U-shaped. At increasing elevation workers become more robust, the dorsal profile more convex, and the metanotal groove shrinks to a thinner notch.
I have one queen tentatively associated with workers. It was in a Winkler sample from Monteverde. The queen looks like a smaller, lighter colored version of the queen of JTL-029.
I cannot tell the workers of JTL-021 from JTL-029. The workers of JTL-029 are robust, with narrow metanotal groove, and the fourth tooth of the mandible is relatively large, making the mandibles less linear than most collections of JTL-021. But they are an extreme of what appears to be continuous variation in JTL-021.
Three collections from La Selva seem distinct. The clypeal carinae are less divergent and the teeth more pronounced, the eyes are smaller, and the posterior face of the propodeum has distinct lateral carinae. (Figures above are of this form.)
Similar species: JTL-025, JTL-029.
Natural History
This species is known mainly from workers collected in Winkler samples. At La Selva there are also two records from honey/oil baits on forest floor, and one collection (workers only) from dead wood on the forest floor.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
Go back to top