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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2021)

// Distribution

Distribution:

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

Distribution Notes:

Costa Rica (Lattke 1995, Brown 1958). Costa Rica: wet forests of both slopes to 1700m.

Biology:

Natural History:

This species inhabits mature wet forest from near sea level to 1700m. Alfaro observed them nesting in the soil, and feigning death when disturbed (Emery 1896). These observations have been confirmed by more recent collections. In one instance, workers have been observed attacking an earthworm on the forest floor.

Selected Costa Rican records:

Heredia: 22km N Volcan Barba, 10¡20'N, 84¡04'W, 500m (J. Longino). Mature wet forest. Night collecting. Group of workers attacking annelid on forest floor. Ants very slow, feigned death when disturbed.

Heredia: La Selva Biological Station, 10¡26'N, 84¡01'W, 50m (collector?).

Heredia: 13km N Vol. Barba, 10¡15'N, 84¡05'W, 1320m (J. Longino). Wet forest; ex Winkler sample, sifted leaf litter from forest floor.

Puntarenas: Monteverde, 10¡18'N, 84¡48'W, 1500m (J. Longino). (1) Mature cloud forest. Teri Matelson was sorting roots from soil samples from the Cloud Forest Reserve, and encountered these ants. The nest was subterranean, in the first soil horizon, 10-20cm deep. (2) Workers also collected from two Winkler samples from cloud forest.

Puntarenas: Estacion Biol. Pittier, 9¡02'N, 82¡58'W, 1670m (INBio Parataxonomist course). Wet forest; ex Winkler sample, sifted leaf litter from forest floor.

Puntarenas: Rancho Quemado, Osa Peninsula, 8¡42'N, 83¡33'W, 200m (J. Longino). Wet forest; ex Winkler sample, sifted leaf litter from forest floor.

References:

Brown, W. L., Jr. 1958. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. II. Tribe Ectatommini (Hymenoptera). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 118:175-362.

Emery, C. 1896. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. XVII-XXV. Bolletino della Societa Entomologica Italiana 28:33-107, pl. 1.

Lattke, J. E. 1992. Revision of the minuta group of the genus Gnamptogenys. Deutsche entomologische Zeitschrift 39:123-129.

Lattke, J. E. 1995. Revision of the ant genus Gnamptogenys in the New World (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 4:137-193.

Mann, W. M. 1926. Some new neotropical ants. Psyche 33:97-107.

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 51 times found in cloud forest, 29 times found in montane wet forest, 24 times found in 2ndary liquidambar forest, 23 times found in mesophil forest, 12 times found in mature wet forest, 11 times found in lowland rainforest, 7 times found in mesophyll forest, 8 times found in mixed hardwood forest, 4 times found in wet forest, 6 times found in 2nd growth forest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 192 times ex sifted leaf litter, 6 times forest litter, 7 times at bait, 7 times Hojarasca, 3 times leaf litter, 1 times pit fall, 1 times nocturnal foragers at annelid prey, 2 times nocturnal foragers, 1 times sifted litter, 1 times Ex sifted leaf litter., 1 times under moss mat on dead wood, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 118 times MiniWinkler, 43 times MaxiWinkler, 27 times Winkler, 9 times Berlese, 8 times search, 7 times Mini Winkler, 7 times Baiting, 4 times Berlese/Winkler, 1 times pit fall, 1 times Malaise trap, 1 times Night MiniWinkler, ...

Elevations: collected from 50 - 2000 meters, 1200 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1895-07-12 and 2019-06-04

Type specimens: syntype of Alfaria simulans: casent0915916, casent0916804; syntype of Gnamptogenys simulans: casent0903848

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