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Odontomachus bauri
Emery 1892
Formicidae, Hymenoptera, Insecta, Arthropoda, Animalia
Range
Costa Rica south throughout tropical South America, Galapagos, West Indies (except Cuba and Bahamas). Distribution in Costa Rica: common in lowlands throughout.
Identification
Face to near margin of vertex striate; HL 2.09-3.12mm (n=16, Brown 1976 and pers. obs.); color dark brown; first gastral tergite smooth and shining; petiolar node dome-shaped as seen from the side, with distinctly convex outline front and rear up to root of a differentiated apical spine; anterior, lateral, and posterior faces of petiole transversely rugose; pubescence on first gastral tergum suberect and relatively uniform, not wooley.
Natural History
This species appears to be more tolerant of dry conditions than many other
Odontomachus
species. Throughout its range it often extends further than other neotropical species into seasonally dry or semiarid habitats (Brown 1976).
Nests of
O. bauri
that I have observed in Costa Rica have almost all been under epiphytes in the canopy (I once observed an aggregation of workers in a rotten log on the forest floor, but there was no brood). On the Pacific side of Costa Rica
bauri
is a very common forager on the ground, and appears to be the most common
Odontomachus
species in most habitats. On the Atlantic side, nests are common in the canopy, but workers are rarely seen at ground level. Thus, to the typical ground-based ant collector,
bauri
appears to be very rare on the Atlantic side. At the time of Brown's (1976) revision, he knew of only a single specimen from the Atlantic lowlands, an alate queen collected near Guapiles. I think this is a collector bias, because the species is quite common in the canopy. Brown's Guapiles queen was the northernmost record of the species in Central America at the time of his revision. I expect that the true range of the species extends farther northward in Atlantic lowland rainforest.
Type Data
Odontomachus haematodus bauri
Emery 1892:561. Syntype worker: Galapagos Islands: Isla Isabela (Albemarle I.).
Notes
Brown (1976) defined
bauri
very broadly. Taxa with Costa Rican type localities that were synonymized under
bauri
were:
Odontomachus haematodes
var.
microcephalus
Emery 1890:45. Syntype worker: Costa Rica: Alajuela.
Odontomachus haematodes
var.
rugisquama
Forel 1908:35. Syntype worker: Costa Rica: La Caja.
Brown examined the type of
rugisquama
, but not that of
microcephalus
. Thus his synonymy of
microcephalus
was tentative, based on the brief published description.
Brown's revision left a peculiar state of affairs under
bauri
. He listed three older taxa as tentative synonyms of
bauri
, but used
bauri
as the valid name.
Formica unispinosa
Fabricius 1793 was from Guadeloupe. Two species of
Odontomachus
occur on Guadeloupe, and which one might be
unispinosa
cannot be determined, so Brown treated it as a
nomen oblitum
.
Odontomachus haematodus
var
pubescens
Roger 1861 was from La Guaira, Venezuela. Brown considered it likely to be
bauri
because of the locality, but he failed to locate a type, and thought it should be treated as another
nomen oblitum
. Brown simply listed Emery's
microcephalus
as a tentative synonym, possibly a mermithergate, with no discussion. The
microcephalus
type probably exists in the Emery collection in Genoa. Bolton (1995) listed
unispinosa
as
incertae sedis
, and
pubescens
and
microcephalus
as junior synonyms. Thus the nomenclatural stability of the name
bauri
is questionable.
unispinosa
and
pubescens
should both be
incertae sedis
, but
microcephalus
is a potential senior synonym of
bauri
.
Literature Cited
Bolton, B. 1995. A New General Catalogue of the Ants of the World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.
Brown, W. L., Jr. 1976. Contributions toward a reclassification of the Formicidae. Part VI. Ponerinae, tribe Ponerini, subtribe Odontomachiti. Section A. Introduction, subtribal characters. Genus Odontomachus. Studia Entomol. 19:67-171.
Emery, C. 1890. Studii sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. I-V. Boll. Soc. Entomol. It. 22:38-80.
Emery, C. 1892(1891). Voyage de M. Ch. Alluaud dans le territoire d'Assinie. Formicides. Annls Soc. Entomol. Fr. 60:553-574.
Fabricius, J. C. 1793. Entomologia Systematica. Hafniae: Proft. vol. 2, 519 pp. Ants - p. 349-365.
Forel, A. 1908. Fourmis de Costa-Rica recoltees par M. Paul Biolley. Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sci. Nat. 44:35-72.
Roger, J. 1861. Die Ponera-artigen Ameisen (Schluss). Berl. Entomol. Z. 5:1-54.
Page author:
John T. Longino, The Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 98505 USA.
longinoj@evergreen.edu
Date of this version: 7 January 1999
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