Current View: Bolton World Catalog

Cite this page

View in AntCat

Current Valid Name:

Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

// Distribution

Distribution:

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

Distribution Notes:

Costa Rica to Brazil.

Biology:

Natural History:

Tranopelta gilva are pale, subterranean ants that are never seen foraging on the surface. In the field their general habitus is very similar to the formicine genus Acropyga. Very little is known of the biology. Workers are most often found under rocks in clay soil in lowland rainforest. They may also occur in Winkler and Berlese samples of leaf litter from the forest floor. In Costa Rica I have collected T. gilva at four sites: La Selva Biological Station, 500m elevation on the Barva Transect above La Selva, Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve, and near Ciudad Neily in the southern Pacific lowlands. At La Selva I once observed a populous colony under the loose bark of a rotten log in primary forest. Knots of workers and uniformly-sized brood were in scattered piles, distributed across at least 2m of the log length.

Queens are very large, dramatically larger than the workers. Most queens are collected at lights.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 431 times found in mature wet forest, 63 times found in montane wet forest, 9 times found in tropical rainforest, 1 times found in Puesto #4,43G,10m., 6 times found in wet forest, 7 times found in rainforest, 1 times found in Puesto #1,29G,10m., 1 times found in Puesto#1,84G, 10m, 1 times found in Trampa4,101G. 10m., 1 times found in Puesto3,335G. 10m., ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 450 times ex sifted leaf litter, 62 times Hojarasca, 6 times Bosque Primario, Suelo, 4 times at light, 1 times at blacklight in lab clearing, 2 times under stone, 3 times Parcelas susecionales, Suelo, 2 times Hojarasca., 1 times ex rotten log, 1 times at MV light, 1 times under stone with mealy bugs, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 438 times MiniWinkler, 56 times Berlese, 61 times Mini Winkler, 15 times Winkler, 10 times search, 4 times MaxiWinkler, 3 times flight intercept trap, 3 times Pitfall, 2 times Search & Berles, 2 times Blacklight, 2 times light, ...

Elevations: collected from 20 - 1900 meters, 139 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1920-08-08 00:00:00.0 and 2020-01-26 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: syntype of Monomorium amblyops: casent0904617; syntype of Monomorium heyeri: casent0908790; syntype of Tranopelta gilva: casent0916040, casent0916041, casent0916042; syntype of Tranopelta gilva brunnea: casent0913105; syntype of Tranopelta heyeri columbica: casent0913106; type of Monomorium amblyops: focol1883, focol1884

See something amiss? Send us an email.

AntWeb is hosted and supported by the California Academy of Sciences.