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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2021)

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador. Costa Rica: lowland rainforest on the Atlantic slope and the Osa Peninsula.

Biology:

Natural History:

This species prefers rainforest habitats. I most often encounter it as workers in recent treefalls or on low vegetation. I have seen two nests, both in dead stems:

Nest in 11mm diameter dead stick in Acacia ruddiae tree.

Nest in a hollow twig, 26cm long, 4mm outside dia., 2mm inside dia. The top had been broken off. Soldiers were on top, nearest the entrance, and a group of three blocked the mouth of the nest and slowly moved backwards as I broke open the nest. Nest contents were 93 minors (including callows), 10 majors, 26 pupae, 10 large larvae, and small brood.

References:

Andrade, M. L. de, and C. Baroni Urbani. 1999. Diversity and adaptation in the ant genus Cephalotes, past and present (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Stuttgarter Beitrage zur Naturkunde Serie B (Geologie und Palaontologie) 271:1-889.

Wheeler, W. M. 1942. Studies of Neotropical ant-plants and their ants. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. 90:1-262.

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 6 times found in lowland wet forest, 1 times found in river floodplain, 5 times found in lowland rainforest, 4 times found in montane wet forest, 1 times found in moist forest, 3 times found in tropical moist forest, 1 times found in wet forest, 2 times found in rainforest edge, 1 times found in roadside edge, 1 times found in Primary forest and second growth habitats, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 8 times beating vegetation, 1 times in dead stick, 1 times nest in dead stick, 1 times ex dead twig, 2 times in fresh treefall, 1 times ex swollen-thorn Acacia, 1 times Cordia alliodora, 1 times strays, 1 times recent treefall, 1 times on low vegetation, 1 times nocturnal foragers, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 8 times Beating, 8 times search, 3 times Malaise, 2 times Foggin, 1 times mostly beating vegetation, some hand collections from treefall, 1 times FIT, 1 times MiniWinkler.

Elevations: collected from 10 - 1760 meters, 315 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1910-03-01 and 2015-07-12

Type specimens: syntype of Cephalotes porrasi: casent0912610, casent0912611

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