Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Range
Mexico, Honduras (type locality), Costa Rica, Colombia. Costa Rica: commmon in wet montane forest throughout country, decreasing in abundance at low elevation; low density element at La Selva Biological Station.
Identification
Basal margin of mandible flat, without a notch; sculpture on face and mesosoma coarsely costate/rugose; anterior clypeal margin with rounded median notch; dorsal face of propodeum rounding into posterior face, not forming angle or tooth; petiolar node in lateral profile subtriangular, not rounded dorsally; WL greater than 1mm.
Natural History
Stenamma felixi occurs in wet forest habitats from 50m elevation rainforest to 1600m elevation cloud forest. It is rare at low elevation and relatively common above 500m. Workers can be encountered in Winkler samples of sifted leaf litter, Malaise trap samples, and sweep net samples. They appear to be epigaeic foragers, and perhaps they forage on low vegetation, but I never encounter them more than a meter above the ground. The workers are relatively large and conspicuous, and I often collect diurnal foragers. I do not know what they eat; foragers are solitary and they generally do not come to baits.
I have found relatively populous nests in dead wood on the ground, in rotten stumps or under loose bark of soft rotten logs. Colonies appear to be monogynous. Although I usually find nests in dead wood, I have found scattered lone foundresses under rotting epiphyte mats in old treefalls.
In my collection records I have more nest collections of Stenamma felixi than collections from Winkler samples. This is in striking contrast to most other species of Stenamma, where nests are rarely collected or unknown and the species is mainly known from Winkler samples.
Comments
Literature Cited
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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