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Taxonomic History (provided by Barry Bolton, 2023)

Taxon Page Images:

A Strumigenys elongata worker in the leaf litter in Viçosa, Minas Gerais (image by Júlio Chaul, 2014).

// Distribution

Distribution:

  Geographic regions (According to curated Geolocale/Taxon lists):
    Americas: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela
  Biogeographic regions (According to curated Bioregion/Taxon lists):
    Neotropical

Distribution Notes:

Southern Mexico to Bolivia and southeastern Brazil. Costa Rica: common in all lowland sites; absent from wet montane forest.

Biology:

Brown and Wilson (1959) summarize the genus as follows:

"Widespread in tropics and warm temperate areas. Primarily forest-dwelling; some species occur in grassland and arid scrub. ... Nests mostly in soil and rotting wood; a few species live in arboreal plant cavities in tropical rain forest. Foraging hypogaeic to epigaeic-arboreal. Food: most species are collembolan feeders; a few are polyphagous predators or occasionally feed on sugary substances..."

Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a kinetic mode of attack (Bolton 1999).

elongata is one of the most common Strumigenys species in forested habitats of Costa Rica. It occurs in dry and wet forests. It may nest on the forest floor in dead wood or under stones, or under epiphytes in the canopy. Brown (1954, 1962) reports that it is definitely a collembolan feeder.

Comments:

Longino notes, 9 Nov 2013: In Central America, Strumigenys elongata, pariensis, spathula, and morphospecies JTL022 form a single DNA barcoding cluster with subclusters. Strumigenys elongata occurs as two clusters with 3-5% sequence difference but the specimens are broadly sympatric and no morphological correlate was found. JTL022 is 2 specimens from one miniWinkler, Cerro Cahuí, Guatemala. It is small, has short propodeal spines, short mandibles, large elongate femoral glands, and thickened but coachwhip-like gastral setae like pariensis. Strumigenys spathula is morphologically distinct but has discordant DNA barcode data. A Chiapas specimen and a Cerro Cahuí specimen of spathula are distant by DNA barcode, about 5% sequence divergence, but look the same. The Cerro Cahui specimen clusters closer to a Nicaraguan specimen of pariensis.

References:

Bolton, B. 1999. Ant genera of the tribe Dacetonini (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). J. Nat. Hist. 33:1639-1689.

Bolton, B. 2000. The ant tribe Dacetini, with a revision of the Strumigenys species of the Malagasy Region by Brian L. Fisher, and a revision of the Austral epopostrumiform genera by Steven O. Shattuck. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 65:1-1028.

Brown, W. L., Jr. 1954(1953). The neotropical species of the ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith: Group of elongata Roger. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 61:189-200.

Brown, W. L., Jr. 1962. The neotropical species of the ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith: Synopsis and keys to the species. Psyche 69:238-267.

Brown, W. L., Jr., Wilson, E. O. 1959. The evolution of the dacetine ants. Quarterly Review of Biology 34:278-294.

Taxonomic Treatment (provided by Plazi)

Specimen Habitat Summary

Found most commonly in these habitats: 175 times found in tropical rainforest, 99 times found in mature wet forest, 62 times found in 2º lowland rainforest, 53 times found in tropical moist forest, 51 times found in montane wet forest, 48 times found in 2º wet forest, 39 times found in tropical wet forest, 37 times found in lowland rainforest, 38 times found in 2º lowland tropical rainforest, 22 times found in rainforest, ...

Found most commonly in these microhabitats: 747 times ex sifted leaf litter, 39 times Hojarasca, 13 times ex sifted litter, 1 times Bosque Primario, Suelo, 2 times sifted litter (leaf mold, rotten wood), 4 times sifted litter, 2 times Ex sifted leaf litter., 2 times epiphytic material, Virola koschnyi, 2 times epiphytic material, Pentaclethra macroloba, 3 times Cerca de; Cañon del rio Peje hacia Cascante, 1 times Ticoporo Forest Reserve. Dense second growth with few larger trees. Ex sifted le, ...

Collected most commonly using these methods: 536 times MiniWinkler, 95 times Winkler, 139 times MaxiWinkler, 30 times Berlese, 28 times Mini Winkler, 8 times search, 5 times Night MiniWinkler, 3 times Winkler48h, 1 times 6L sifted litter, extracted in Winkler sack over 44 hours, 2 times Maxi Winkler, 2 times 30 x 30 cm winkler (litter + 2 cm of soil), ...

Elevations: collected from 5 - 1400 meters, 305 meters average

Collect Date Range: collected between 1924-04-01 00:00:00.0 and 2022-01-17 00:00:00.0

Type specimens: syntype of Strumigenys elongata: focol2162; syntype of Strumigenys imitator: casent0900445, casent0915691, casent0916681

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