Myrmicinae, Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
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Additional images: Queen, face view (small, large), lateral view (small, large).
Range
Costa Rica, Surinam (type locality), Colombia, Brazil (Bahia, Matto Grosso). Costa Rica: Atlantic slope to 600m.
Identification
Propodeal spines very short; mesosomal dorsum with short stubble; surface generally strongly roughened and wrinkled.
Natural History
In Costa Rica, this species is infrequently encountered. It inhabits mature lowland rainforest in the Atlantic lowlands. It has been collected in Winkler samples of sifted litter from the forest floor at Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve, Casa Plastico near Rara Avis, the 500m site on the Barva Transect, and La Selva Biological Station. Quantitative sampling by the ALAS project reveals it to be a low density species occurring most often in fogging samples, and less often in Winkler and Berlese samples of forest floor litter. Dinah Davidson collected it in a Piper plant at La Selva. Mary Cornelius, an OTS student, found a nest in a leaf domatium of an ant-plant (Tococa, Melastomataceae) at Tortuguero, but it contained only workers and brood. Grant Gentry found small carton nests under leaves at La Selva (pers. comm.). Workers have been collected from the stomachs of dendrobatid frogs in the Choc— region of Colombia. These results suggest that the species may nest in the low arboreal zone yet forage in the leaf litter on the forest floor (Longino and Fern‡ndez 2007).
Literature Cited
Longino, J. T., and F. Fern‡ndez C. 2007. A taxonomic review of the genus Wasmannia. Pages 271-289 in R. R. Snelling, B. L. Fisher, and P. S. Ward, editors. Advances In Ant Systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Homage To E. O. Wilson Ð 50 Years Of Contributions. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute, 80.
Page authors:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA. longinoj@evergreen.edu
Fernando Fern‡ndez, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Apartado 7495, Bogot‡ D.C., COLOMBIA
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