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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2017)

Distribution:

(based on species list records)
Neotropical Region: Alajuela, Americas, Bocas del Toro, Central America, Chiriquí, Colombia, Costa Rica, Heredia, Limón, Panama, Puntarenas, San José

Distribution Notes:

Costa Rica (type locality), Panama, Colombia. Costa Rica: montane sites from Cordillera de Tilarán southward.

 

Biology:

All Simopelta species are nomadic group raiders, convergent with Ecitoninae.

This species occurs in mature montane forest habitats, generally above 1000m elevation. I know it from the upper Peñas Blancas Valley, the 1100m site on the Barva transect in Braulio Carrillo National Park, Wilson Botanical Garden near San Vito, and the Bocas del Toro area of Panama. I also have one collection given to me by Bill Brown from Valle, Colombia. He identified it as an undescribed species, but it matches my concept of paeminosa. For one collection (JTL0863) I observed workers and brood caches in the leaf litter. The larvae were of uniform size, and closely matched the "young larva" illustrations in Wheeler and Wheeler (1986, Figs. 11b, 13a, 14c). Another collection (JTL4360) was a colony in a clump of dirt in the middle of a recent clearing in mature forest. I tried excavating it and found workers and larvae scattered in the dirt mound, but I never found a queen.

Identification:

Mandible with two apical teeth and large basal tooth, basal tooth short with broad base (unlike oculata, JTL-002); eye relatively small (unlike oculata); anteromedial clypeal projection bluntly rounded, not triangular; face and mesosoma with coarse, irregular rugae (unlike all other species); head relatively broad, head width/head length greater than 0.8.

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 4 times found in wet forest, 1 times found in cloud forest, primary, near ridgetop, 1 times found in ridgetop cloud forest, 2 times found in wet mountain forest, 2 times found in montane wet forest, 1 times found in wet mountain.

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 3 times ex sifted leaf litter, 1 times nest in soil, 1 times beating veg., 1 times Workers and brood caches in leaf litter., 1 times litter, 1 times Hojarasca, 1 times forest litter.

Collected most commonly using these methods: 3 times search, 1 times miniWinkler, 1 times beating, 2 times Winkler, 1 times berlese, 1 times litter, 1 times Mini Winkler.

Elevations: collected from 940 - 2000 meters, 1166 meters average

Type specimens: paratype of Simopelta paeminosa: casent0902468

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