Species: Cephalotes curvistriatus

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2013)

Distribution:

Endemic to Costa Rica. Costa Rica: Atlantic slope (Cordillera Volcanica Central) below 500m.

Biology:

Natural History:

This species is known from few collections. Earlier records are almost all from shipments of orchids intercepted at U.S. quarantine stations (Kempf 1958, Andrade and Baroni Urbani 1999). My own collections have all been from the Atlantic slope rainforest on the Cordillera Volcanica Central. The one nest collection I have made was from a recent treefall at La Selva Biological Station. It was from a part of the treefall with a big branch of Stryphnodendron excelsum, some smaller Pentaclethra macroloba branches, and a tangled mass of Norantea sessilis. There were two Cephalotes nests in different parts of a live Norantea stem. One stem was 12mm and the other 15mm in diameter. In the field I thought they were part of one polydomous colony, because they were in such close proximity, but I later discovered that one nest was C. curvistriatus and the other was C. maculatus.

Other than this nest collection, I have seen workers from three other canopy samples from La Selva, and two canopy samples from a 500m elevation site in Braulio Carrillo National Park above La Selva.

References:

Andrade, M. L. de, and C. Baroni Urbani. 1999. Diversity and adaptation in the ant genus Cephalotes, past and present (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde Serie B (Geologie und Palaontologie) 271:1-889.

Creighton, W. S. 1963. Further studies on the habits of Cryptocerus texanus Santschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche 70:133-143.

Creighton, W. S. 1967. Studies on free colonies of Cryptocerus texanus Santschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche 74:34-41.

Creighton, W. S., Gregg, R. E. 1954. Studies on the habits and distribution of Cryptocerus texanus Santschi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Psyche (Camb.) 61:41-57.

Forel, A. 1899. Biologia Centrali-Americana 3 (Formicidae). 169pp, London.

Kempf, W. W. 1958. New studies of the ant tribe Cephalotini (Hym. Formicidae). Stud. Entomol. (n.s.)1:1-168.

Longino, J. T., Wheeler, J. 1987. Ants in live oak galls in Texas. National Geographic Research 3:125-127.

Taxon Page Author History

Specimen Data Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 4 times found in CCL 400, 5 times found in montane wet forest, 2 times found in CCL 840M, 2 times found in tropical wet forest, 1 times found in CC1500m., 1 times found in mature rainforest, 1 times found in rainforest, 1 times found in wet forest

Collected most commonly using these methods or in the following microhabitats: 13 times Fogging, 4 times Malaise, 2 times beating, 1 times Search, 1 times Sweeping

Elevations: collected from 50 - 700 meters, 196 meters average

2 Specimens Imaged | View All 27 Specimens for this species

CASENT0627941

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INBIOCRI002281724

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