Dacetini, Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: worker, dorsal view (small, large).
Identification
Apical fork of mandible with one intercalary tooth; mandible lacking preapical teeth or denticles; gaster smooth and shining, with long flagelliform setae; longitudinal or oblique costulation as the main component on the pronotal dorsum; any punctate sculpture that may be present is feeble and very obviously secondary to the costulate component. See also Bolton (2000:515).
Range
Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica. Costa Rica: mid-elevation northern Cordilleras.
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).
This species inhabits wet forest leaf litter. Lattke and Goitia (1997) discovered the species in a cloud forest site in the interior of Venezuela. This report and Bolton (2000) extend the range to montane cloud forest sites in Costa Rica and Panama. This species is probably widespread but undersampled.
Selected Records
Winkler samples from Guanacaste Conservation Area (Pitilla, 600m) and Braulio Carrillo National Park (1000m).
Original Description
Strumigenys humata Lattke and Goitia 1997:385-386, Figs. 35,44. Holotype worker: Venezuela, Aragua: Loma de Hierro, 10deg10'N 67deg08'W, 25.5km SE La Victoria, 1400m (J. Lattke) [MIZA].
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., and E. O. Wilson 1959. The evolution of the dacetine ants. Quarterly Review of Biology 34:278-294.
Lattke, J., and W. Goitia 1997. El genero Strumigenys (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) en Venezuela. Caldasia 19:367-396.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.longinoj@evergreen.edu
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