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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Barbados, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

This species has a wide range across tropical South America, and has been recorded occurring as far north as Barbabos and Costa Rica. Costa Rica: Monteverde, Volcan Barva transect at 1100m.

Biology:

The few Costa Rican records of this species are from cloud forest habitats. Workers have been collected in Winkler samples of sifted leaf litter from the forest floor.

Identification:

In Central America, several species of Acropyga have mandibles that are narrow and strap-shaped, with only 3 teeth on the relatively short masticatory margin. Queens may occasionally have 4 teeth, but the mandible is still narrow and strap-shaped. LaPolla (2004) distinguished these species mainly on male genitalia. Workers are not easily distinguished.

At La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica, A. exsanguis and A. keira co-occur. The workers of A. exsanguis are scruffier, with somewhat more abundant dorsal pilosity. The males are more distinct, with males of A. keira having larger apices of the penis valves. A few worker collections from higher elevations above La Selva and in Monteverde are larger than the typical La Selva A. exsanguis and are tentatively identified as A. goeldii. LaPolla also described A. palaga, with workers indistinguishable from A. goeldii, based on a collection from Estrella Valley in the Atlantic lowlands and a collection from Alajuela.

North of Costa Rica, a few collections have associated males, and these more or less match La Selva A. exsanguis. Longino uses A. exsanguis as the default identification for A. exsanguis-like material from Nicaragua to Mexico, but it is likely that multiple cryptic species occur.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 9 times found in montane wet forest, 5 times found in Yard in the urban area, 2 times found in cloud forest, 1 times found in Savannah, 1 times found in Semideciduous seasonal forest, 1 times found in mature wet forest.

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 9 times Hojarasca, 3 times under stone, 1 times vers coccidies du Caféier, 1 times Ground, 1 times ex sifted leaf litter on ground, 1 times ex sifted leaf litter.

Collected most commonly using these methods: 8 times Mini Winkler, 5 times Manual sampling, 2 times miniwinkler, 1 times Pitfall72h, 1 times search, 1 times Winkler.

Elevations: collected from 4 - 1560 meters, 1001 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1900-07-01 00:00:00.0 and 2018-04-20 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: Holotype of Acropyga borgmeieri: casent0903184; Holotype of Rhizomyrma marshalli: casent0903183; Lectotype of Acropyga goeldii: casent0909902; syntype of Acropyga pickeli: casent0912355; syntype of Rhizomyrma goeldii columbica: casent0909903; syntype of Rhizomyrma goeldii tridentata: casent0909904; syntype of Rhizomyrma pachycera: casent0905163; type of Rhizomyrma goeldii tridentata: focol2960

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