Species: Pyramica brevicornis

Distribution:

Full Range: southern Mexico to Panama.

Costa Rican Range: common throughout, from sea-level to 2600m.

Biology:

Strumigenys brevicornis Mann 1922:38. Syntype worker, queen: Honduras, La Ceiba, ii-iii.1920, No. 24458 (Mann) [USNM, MCZ].

Later moved to Neostruma, then Pyramica. See Bolton (2000) for complete synonymy.

Natural History:

Brown (1959) characterized the genus Neostruma (now part of Pyramica, see Bolton 1999) as forming

"small colonies, chiefly in the leaf litter of rain forest or tropical evergreen forest, and nests occupy cavities in rotting twigs, pieces of bark or similar forest-floor vegetable debris... The food... consists primarily of small entomobryomorph Collembola and possibly some other minute terrestrial arthropods as well. Hunting behavior is like that of Smithistruma [also now part of Pyramica] rather than like the Strumigenys so far studied."

This species inhabits wet forested habitats from near sea level to 2600m, the light form most abundant below 500m, the dark form most abundant above. It occurs in leaf litter and is common in Winkler samples. A Winkler sample from oak forest in the Talamancas (Cerro Gemelos) at 2600m yielded six workers of this species and one worker of a Discothyrea species. This is one of the highest records of ants in Costa Rica (the only higher record I know is for a nomadic army ant, Labidus coecus, at 3000m near Villa Mills). At Monteverde the species is common in litter on the ground, but has also been taken in Winkler samples of epiphytes and soil from the forest canopy.

References:

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. 1959. A revision of the Dacetine ant genus Neostruma. Breviora 107:1-13.

Mann, W. M. 1922. Ants from Honduras and Guatemala. Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum 61:1-54.

Taxon Page Author History

Specimen Data Summary

Collected most commonly using these methods or in the following microhabitats: 1 times Berlese

Elevations: collected at 1494 m

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