Species: Ponera exotica

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2013)

Distribution:

Ozarks & SE

Biology:

Habitat: P. exotica inhabits dry and dry-mesic woodlands with acid soils such as those formed from shale, chert, cherty clay or sandstone. It probably nests primarily in soil, but this ant is most easily captured as stray worker foragers (and occasional single queens) by extracting leaf litter. In Missouri, I usually collect it from Vaccinium thickets in dry, pine-oak or open oak woodlands on south-facing slopes with cherty clay soil. I once found an entire colony under an approximately 1-ft. diameter, flat rock, on a sparsely wooded ridge in Lawrence, Kansas, after heavy rains several days in a row had completely saturated the subtending, clayey soil.

Natural History: Little known. Ponera species are all thought to be generalist predators of small, soft-bodied arthropods. Colony-founding queens forage (as most likely do all our ponerines) in soil and leaf litter. The above mentioned Kansas colony had about sixty workers and a single queen.

Taxon Page Author History

Specimen Data Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 6 times found in rainforest, 5 times found in forest, 6 times found in littoral forest, 1 times found in tropical dry forest, 1 times found in pine-oak forest, transitional to hardwood swamp forest, 2 times found in mixed forest near glacis, 2 times found in non native forest, 1 times found in mesic forest, 2 times found in mixed forest, 2 times found in native wet forest, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods or in the following microhabitats: 2 times 4 MaxiWinks, mixed samples, 6 times 9 MaxiWinks, mixed samples, 1 times 3 MaxiWinks, mixed samples

Elevations: collected from 5 - 735 meters, 257 meters average

5 Specimens Imaged | View All 75 Specimens for this species

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