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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2021)

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

Costa Rica (type locality). I have seen horni-like material from Colombia, Mexico (Chiapas and Veracruz), and Panama, but given the taxonomic uncertainty of species boundaries in Discothyrea, I am reluctant to make any statements about the range outside of Costa Rica. In Costa Rica this species occurs in wet to moist forests throughout the country, from near sea level to cloud forest at 1600m.

Biology:

Natural History:

Discothyrea are extremely small, cryptobiotic inhabitatants of forest leaf litter (see Genus Overview).

Discothyrea horni is the most common species in Costa Rica. It occurs in a wide variety of habitats: lowland wet or dry forest and montane cloud forest. It is more abundant in montane and cloud forest than in lowland forest. Workers and queens are relatively common in Berlese and Winkler samples of soil and litter. I have never found a nest.

Notes:

I examined the type of horni in 1990. It matched the montane dark horni typical of Monteverde and Volcan Barva cloud forest. Much of Schmidt's material was collected in montane forests around San Jose, such as Vara Blanca.

References:

Menozzi, C. 1927. Formiche raccolte dal Sig. H. Schmidt nei dintorni di San Jose di Costa Rica. Entomol. Mitt. 16:266-277.

Roger, J. 1863. Die neu aufgefuehrten Gattungen und Arten meines Formiciden-Verzeichnisses nebst Erganzung einiger frueher gegebenen Beschreibungen. Berl. Entomol. Z. 7:131-214.

Smith, M. R., and M. W. Wing 1955(1954). Redescription of Discothyrea testacea Roger, a little-known North American ant, with notes on the genus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of the New York Entomological Society 62:105-112.

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 3 times found in cloud forest, 2 times found in rainforest, 1 times found in Fila El Viento, Bosque Seco.

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 3 times ex sifted litter, 2 times sifted litter (leaf mold, rotten wood), 1 times Ex hojarasca.

Collected most commonly using these methods: 4 times Winkler, 1 times 6L sifted litter, extracted in Winkler sack over 36 hours.

Elevations: collected from 15 - 1780 meters, 958 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1982-04-16 and 2021-05-21

Type specimens: type of Discothyrea horni: focol0380

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