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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

Mexico to Argentina. Costa Rica: widespread.

Biology:

Natural History:

This species makes large external carton nests. I have observed four nests, three in Costa Rica and one in Panama, and all have been in Cecropia trees (C. peltata, C. obtusifolia, and C. longipes). Benson (1985) also observed A. schimperi in Cecropia trees. However Forel (1908b), describing the queen and male from a collection from Bahia, Brazil, explicitly stated that the carton nest was perched on the branches of a tree that was not Cecropia.

The three nests I have seen in Costa Rica were all at the edges of roads in highly human altered landscapes (pasture edges, coffee farms) in seasonally dry areas. The globular carton nests are very conspicuous on the highly visible branches of Cecropia trees, and in my studies of Cecropia in Costa Rica I always looked for them. Yet I have only seen these three over many years of work in Costa Rica. I have never been able to examine a nest closely, but I have been able to observe the base of the trees in which they occurred. In one case workers were foraging not only on the base of the tree but also on surrounding low vegetation. In another case, on a tree with stump sprouts at the base, workers were swarming over the sprouts but not actually entering the internodes. These observations contrast with typical Cecropia ants, which never forage off the host plant and usually enter and occupy any sprouts at the base of the tree. Thus A. schimperi seems to occupy Cecropia trees more "lightly" than the dominant obligate Cecropia ants.

Azteca schimperi could be a temporary social parasite of Cecropia ants, usurping an existing Azteca colony as a means of establishing its own. Such a scenario might explain the somewhat less specialized use of Cecropia by A. schimperi; it may be a specialist on Cecropia ants rather than Cecropia trees.

Notes:

Azteca schimperi has a very broad range, vying with A. alfari for the Azteca species with the largest range. It is a relatively distinctive species with little discernable variation over the range; specimens from Argentina and Paraguay look very like specimens from Central America and Mexico.

See additional discussion of A. aurita group.

Literature Cited

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 2 times found in roadside veg., 2 times found in roadside vegetation, 1 times found in rainforest edge, 1 times found in edge of rainforest, 1 times found in dry forest, roadside veg., 1 times found in montane rainforest, 1 times found in seasonal dry veg., roadside, 1 times found in Wooded ravine.

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 2 times nest in Cecropia, 2 times carton nest in Cecropia peltata, 1 times lab clearing; globular carton nest in Cecropia longipes, 1 times ex Cecropia obstusifolia, 1 times in carton nest in Cecropia concolor, 1 times ex carton nest on Cecropia, 1 times carton nest in Cecropia tree, 1 times tending coccidae, 1 times on low vegetation.

Collected most commonly using these methods: 4 times search, 1 times hand collecting.

Elevations: collected from 100 - 1300 meters, 536 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1911-12-28 00:00:00.0 and 2011-06-11 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: syntype Azteca schimperi: jtl073594; syntype of Azteca muelleri pallida: focol2847, focol2848; syntype of Azteca schimperi: casent0905093; syntype of Azteca fiebrigi: casent0909626, casent0909627; syntype of Azteca lanuginosa clariceps: casent0911462

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