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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, United States
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Nearctic, Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

Southeastern United States to Costa Rica; Jamaica.

Biology:

P. ejectus nests in dead twigs or stalks of woody and herbaceous plants. Collections have been made from the following plant genera: Carya, Cladium, Conostegia, Prosopis, Quercus, Rhus, Spilanthes, Vernonia, and Vitis. In southeastern United States alates have been collected in the months of March, June, July, and September. Three out of five nests which Ward (1985) dissected (from Florida, Texas, and Mexico) contained a single dealate female; the other two nests were queenless. In Florida some nests of this species are polygynous (R. W. Klein, pers. comm.).

Identification:

Worker:

• standing pilosity sparse, absent from mesonotum and propodeum
• head and gaster usually dark brown
• metanotal groove deep, wide
• dorsal face of propodeum shorter than declivitous face
• petiole and postpetiole slender (PVVI 0.40-0.52; PPVVI 0.93-1.25)

Taxonomic Notes:

The types of P. ejectus are labeled as coming from "Brazil?", but this is almost certainly a case of mislabeling.

References:

Ward, P. S. 1985. The Nearctic species of the genus Pseudomyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Quaestiones Entomologicae 21: 209-246.

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 7 times found in rainforest edge, 6 times found in montane rainforest edge, 4 times found in riparian woodland, 8 times found in open maritime forest, 7 times found in montane wet forest, 4 times found in 2nd growth forest, 6 times found in behind beach house, 3 times found in second-growth rainforest edge, 3 times found in tropical wet forest, 3 times found in mesophil forest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 14 times on low vegetation, 9 times beating vegetation, 4 times beating veg., 2 times ex dead twig of baccharis, 3 times black light, 1 times foragers in treefall, 3 times Sobre Vegetacion, 3 times ex low branch Carya floridana, 2 times ex dead weed stalk, 1 times in dead grape vine, 2 times grass stems, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 18 times search, 12 times Beating, 10 times blacklight trap, 11 times boxtrap, 9 times Lindgren funnel, 9 times beating trees and shrubs, 7 times sweeping, 7 times Lindgren funnel baited with Typosan, 4 times beating vegetation (1 hour), 4 times sweep net, 5 times direct collection, ...

Elevations: collected from 3 - 1920 meters, 556 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1908-04-01 00:00:00.0 and 2022-08-14 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: Lectotype of Pseudomyrmex ejectus: casent0902894

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