> Myrmicinae > Pyramica > Pyramica eggersi

Species: Pyramica eggersi

Author: John T. Longino

Taxonomic Hierarchy:

Subfamily: Myrmicinae Genus: Pyramica

Distribution:

Paraguay: Canindeyú, Central, Ñeembucú, Paraguarí, Pte. Hayes

Biology:

Original Description:

Strumigenys eggersi Emery 1890:69, pl. 7, fig. 9. Syntype worker, queen: Antilles Islands, St. Thomas Island (Eggers) [NMV, MZSP, USNM].

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

Natural History:

Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a static pressure mode of attack (Bolton 1999).

Brown (1960) reported

Weber found specimens in a compost heap in the Botanical Garden at Roseau, Dominica, and in an island of vegetation growing in the Pitch Lake of Trinidad; also on Trinidad, he took a sample from low-growing epiphytes in second-growth forest. Kempf sifted specimens from humus in Sao Paulo. Indications are that this species can stand more dryness than many dacetines, and its presence in many culture areas suggests that it is spreading rapidly through nursery stock transport and other human commerce.

He suggested that southern Brazil and Bolivia was its home range, and that elsewhere it had been introduced.

In Costa Rica this species appears rare, although my collecting has not emphasized dry and/or synanthropic habitats. I have encountered it in Winkler samples from Finca La Pacifica (riparian forest in seasonally dry region), and La Selva Biological Station (lowland rainforest).

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2010)

eggersi. Strumigenys eggersi Emery, 1890b: 69, pl. 7, fig. 9 (w.q.) ANTILLES. Combination in S. (Pyramica): Brown, 1948e: 110; in Pyramica: Bolton, 1999: 1673. See also: Brown, 1960b: 46; Bolton, 2000: 184.

References:

Bolton, B. 1999. Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Natural History 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. 1960 (1959). The neotropical species of the ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith: Group of gundlachi (Roger). Psyche 66:37-52.

Emery, C. 1890. Studii sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 22:38-80.