Dacetini, Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: worker dorsal view.
Range
Costa Rica (mid-elevation Atlantic slope in Cordillera de Tilaran, Volcon Cacao in Cordillera de Guanacaste).
Identification
Apical fork of mandible with one intercalary tooth; mandible with small preapical tooth very close to apical fork, and a minute denticle near the apical third of mandible length; gaster smooth and shining, with setae stiff, straight, slightly thickened. See also Bolton (2000:513).
This species shares characters with both micretes and nevermanni. It is intermediate in size between micretes and nevermanni. It has gastral pilosity more like nevermanni than micretes. It has a uniformly punctate face, in contrast to the other two species which have more rugose faces.
Similar species: micretes, nevermanni.
Natural History
Brown and Wilson (1959) summarize the genus as follows:
"Widespread in tropics and warm temperate areas. Primarily forest-dwelling; some species occur in grassland and arid scrub. ... Nests mostly in soil and rotting wood; a few species live in arboreal plant cavities in tropical rain forest. Foraging hypogaeic to epigaeic-arboreal. Food: most species are collembolan feeders; a few are polyphagous predators or occasionally feed on sugary substances..."
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a kinetic mode of attack (Bolton 1999).
The diaptyxis holotype, a lone worker from the Penas Blancas Valley, was collected at night from low vegetation in mature wet forest. Bolton (2000) reports an additional collection from Volcan Cacao, by R. Anderson (I assume from sifted litter).
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., Wilson, E. O. 1959. The evolution of the dacetine ants. Quarterly Review of Biology 34:278-294.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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