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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

// Distribution

Distribution:

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

Distribution Notes:

Southern Mexico to Brazil (Amapa).

Biology:

Longino notes:

The type series of N. pleuriticus was collected in an ant-plant in Kartabo, Guyana. Wheeler collected a nest with workers, queens, and males from the petiole of a small Tachigali. These plants are normally inhabited by specialized Pseudomyrmex species, and this record probably represents an opportunistic association rather than any specialized behavior.

In Costa Rica, I have collected this species, usually as strays on low vegetation or in treefalls, at several sites on the Osa Peninsula (0-300m), near Las Alturas in the Cordillera de Talamanca (1200m), the Barva Transect in Braulio Carrillo National Park (500m), the Penas Blancas Valley east of Monteverde (800m), and on the Pacific slope just below Monteverde (850m).

In the Las Alturas area, in a pasture with recently felled trees, I found a nest in a live branch of a felled Calophyllum tree. Near Monteverde I found a nest in the lower live stems of Triplaris melaenodendron. This tree, instead of being inhabited by the usual obligate Azteca longiceps, was inhabited by numerous opportunistic species including Crematogaster, Pseudomyrmex, Camponotus, Cephalotes, and these Nesomyrmex.

In general it appears that pleuriticus prefers nesting in live stems.

Identification:

Antennae 11-segmented; metasternal lobes subangulate; mandibles smooth and shining at inner half of upper surface; sides of thorax punctate and with feeble rugosities; propodeal spiracles directed upward, highly visible in dorsal view.

Notes:

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 3 times found in mesophil forest, 3 times found in wet forest, 1 times found in 2nd growth pine forest, 2 times found in ridgetop cloud forest, 1 times found in forest/pasture edge, montane wet forest, 2 times found in lowland wet forest, 2 times found in tropical moist forest, 1 times found in mature wet forest, 1 times found in tropical rainforest, 1 times found in rainforest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 6 times ex sifted leaf litter, 6 times beating vegetation, 3 times beating veg., 1 times in Cecropia sapling, 1 times strays, 1 times stray forager, 1 times on low vegetation, 1 times Malaise trap, 1 times in treefall, 1 times Ground, 1 times Ex Triplaris melaenodendron, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 9 times Beating, 5 times search, 4 times miniWinkler, 1 times direct collection, 1 times flight intercept trap, 1 times Foggin, 1 times hand collecting, 1 times litter sample, 1 times Malaise, 1 times MaxiWinkler, 1 times Winkler, ...

Elevations: collected from 30 - 1170 meters, 581 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1985-03-16 00:00:00.0 and 2018-10-16 00:00:00.0

Type specimens:

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