Species: Pachycondyla crenata

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2013)

Distribution:

Southern Mexico to northern Argentina. Costa Rica: widespread and very common in wet forest; sea level to at least 1000m.

Biology:

Natural History:

This species is a very common arboreal forager, and may be particularly abundant in second growth vegetation. It is an opportunistic cavity nester, and will nest in live and dead stems. My impression is that they are occupying preexisting cavities, and not excavating cavities themselves. Colonies are never very large; a few dozen workers at most.

In Corcovado National Park, I made a detailed observation of a nest inside a petiole of Calathea lutea. The nest was in the upper portion of the petiole, where the inside chamber tapered to solid stem. The nest consisted of 4 or 5 small chambers separated by horizontal partitions. There was a thick plug of plant debris at the base of the nest. The lower-most chamber had pupae, the next chamber large larvae, the next small larvae, and the upper-most chamber had eggs.

In the Penas Blancas Valley I observed two queens together in a small dead stick, which suggests pleometrotic (multiple queen) founding.

References:

Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

Brown, W. L., Jr. 1957. Biological investigations in the Selva Lacandona, Chiapas. 4. Ants from Laguna Ocotal (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 116:228-237.

Kempf, W. W. 1972. Catalogo abreviado das formigas da Regiao Neotropical. Stud. Entomol. 15:3-344.

Roger, J. 1861. Die Ponera-artigen Ameisen (Schluss). Berl. Entomol. Z. 5:1-54.

Smith, F. 1858. Catalogue of hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part VI. Formicidae. London: British Museum (Natural History), 216 p.

Taxon Page Author History

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Data Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 74 times found in montane wet forest, 16 times found in 2º lowland rainforest, 6 times found in Sura 700m, 5 times found in lowland rainforest, 3 times found in lowland wet forest, 5 times found in tropical wet forest, 3 times found in SSO 350m, 3 times found in ridgetop cloud forest, 3 times found in SAT, 3 times found in CCL 700m., ...

Collected most commonly using these methods or in the following microhabitats: 56 times Fogging, 43 times Malaise, 30 times search, 29 times Beating, 12 times Sweeping, 12 times Foggin, 8 times flight intercept trap, 6 times MiniWinkler, 3 times MaxiWinkler, 1 times pan traps, 1 times Blacklight, ...

Elevations: collected from 30 - 1260 meters, 370 meters average

4 Specimens Imaged | View All 257 Specimens for this species

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CASENT0246018

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CASENT0249140

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