Species: Discothyrea denticulata

Distribution:

Guyana (type locality), Panama, Costa Rica.

Biology:

Natural History:

Discothyrea are extremely small, cryptobiotic inhabitatants of forest leaf litter (see Genus Overview).

In Costa Rica, this species occurs in lowland forests throughout the country. It is common at La Selva Biological Station, and I have collected it at sites in both the wet southern Pacific lowlands and the seasonally dry northern Pacific lowlands. Collections are usually workers with or without dealate queens in Winkler or Berlese samples from the forest floor. At La Selva Biological Station alate queens were relatively common in canopy fogging samples.

Notes:

I have a collection from Wilson Botanical Gardens tentatively identified as denticulata, but it is larger and is somewhat intermediate in morphology between denticulata and the southern form of JTL-009. At La Selva, D. denticulata and D. horni clearly separate into two morphological clusters, but in some Pacific slope sites I have had difficulty clearly separating them.

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2010)

References:

Weber, N. A. 1939. New ants of rare genera and a new genus of Ponerine ants. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 32:91-104.

Weber, N. A. 1940. Rare Ponerine genera in Panama and British Guiana (Hym.: Formicidae). Psyche 47:75-84.

1 Specimens Imaged | View All 262 Specimens for this species

CASENT0178697

---