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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2021)

// Distribution

Distribution:

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

Distribution Notes:

Guatemala to Amazonian Brazil. Suriname is the type locality.

Biology:

Eurhopalothrix bolaui is more likely to be found in second growth wet forest habitats than primary forest. It is a lowland species, occurring from sea level to 800 m elevation in Central America. One examined queen from Venezuela was found at 1350 m, in montane forest. Most specimens are from Winkler and Berlese samples of sifted litter and rotten wood from the forest floor. However, on multiple instances workers and in one case a dealate queen have been found by searching beneath loose bark of rotten wood.

Identification:

This species has a single tooth row on the mandible (the similar E. gravis has a double tooth row). It has a full complement of 3 pairs of spatulate setae on the promesonotum (a set of similar, mostly montane species have reduced mesosomal pilosity). Eurhopalothrix zipacna is a larger, darker version of E. bolaui that occurs in cloud forests of Guatemala and Honduras.

Comments:

A worker and queen (probable nestmates) from Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, are considerably smaller than other Central American material. A queen from Venezuela is larger, darker, and with more roughened face sculpture compared to Central American queens.

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 5 times found in wet forest, 10 times found in montane wet forest, 5 times found in rainforest, 2 times found in mature wet forest, 1 times found in tropical rain forest, 1 times found in Puesto9,257g, 10m., 2 times found in forest, 1 times found in 1° forest, 1 times found in mature cloud forest, 1 times found in Primary wet forest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 13 times ex sifted leaf litter, 4 times Hojarasca, 2 times ex sifted litter, 2 times rotten wood, 2 times on dead wood, 1 times nocturnal strays, 2 times ex rotten log, 1 times under loose bark of dead wood, 2 times sifted litter (leaf mold, rotten wood), 1 times in rotten log with loose bark, 1 times flight intercept trap, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 8 times Winkler, 5 times Berlese, 7 times search, 5 times maxiWinkler, 4 times Mini Winkler, 2 times Winkler sample, 2 times flight intercept trap, 1 times Winkler48h, 1 times 6L sifted litter, extracted in Winkler sack over 36 hours, 1 times Malaise, 1 times miniWinkler, ...

Elevations: collected from 5 - 1350 meters, 528 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1971-02-19 and 2020-01-22

Type specimens: syntype of Rhopalothrix amoena: casent0900929; syntype of Rhopalothrix bolaui: casent0915938

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