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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2022)

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical
  Native to (according to species list records):
    Neotropical bioregion

Distribution Notes:

Guatemala to Brazil. Costa Rica: northern Pacific lowlands (one record from Atlantic coast).

Biology:

Natural History:

This species is a very common and conspicuous ant in the dry lowlands of northwest Costa Rica, south to Carara Biological Reserve, and as high as 900m elevation on the road to Monteverde. The bright orange workers are common diurnal foragers on low vegetation and treetrunks. They are common in xeric and synanthropic habitats. I usually find nests in dead branches and stems in low vegetation. A dry xeric ridge near Playa Naranjo in Santa Rosa National Park had many bulbous-based Tillandsia on the branches of low shrubs, and I found several C. rectangularis nests in these epiphytes. Several times I have found lone foundress queens in dead stems, suggesting monogynous claustral founding.

I have one Atlantic side collection. I was collecting along the beach margin at the Casa Verde turtle research station in Tortuguero, and I found a nest in a dead vine stem.

References:

Emery, C. 1890. Studii sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 22:38-80.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 6 times found in roadside vegetation, 4 times found in dry forest, 4 times found in Port of entry, 4 times found in 2º lowland rainforest, 3 times found in xeric scrub, 3 times found in beach, 1 times found in Beach edge vegetation, 1 times found in beach margin, 1 times found in tropical forest edge, 1 times found in wet forest edge, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 6 times beating vegetation, 3 times strays, 2 times on low vegetation, 2 times forager, 1 times ex dead stem, 1 times sweeping vegetation, 2 times on bromeliads, 2 times nest in twig above ground, 2 times nest in Tilandsia, 1 times Nest in dead vine stem, 1 times nest in dead stick, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 6 times Beating, 3 times search, 2 times Malaise, 1 times mostly beating vegetation, also some workers collected directly on foliage, 1 times sweep, 1 times beating vegetation, 1 times miniWinkler, 1 times miscellaneous collecting, 1 times pyrethrum/insecticide fogging, 1 times Winkler48h.

Elevations: collected from 3 - 700 meters, 96 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1932-07-07 00:00:00.0 and 2018-08-27 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: syntype of Camponotus rectangularis: casent0905527

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