Megalomyrmex modestus Emery, 1896

Brandão, Carlos Roberto F., 2003, Further Revisionary Studies On The Ant Genus Megalomyrmex Forel (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae: Solenopsidini) C R F. B Abstract, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia (São Paulo) 43 (8), pp. 145-159 : 148

Megalomyrmex modestus Emery, 1896

The type locality of this species in Costa Rica is Suerre (near Jimenez) in the Limón province, and not in the Alajuela province as stated by Brandão (1990) .

Three workers of this species, from Rio Toro Amarillo, near Guapiles, Alajuela province, belonging to the MZSP collection, were erroneously listed in the 1990 revision as gynes. Also from Costa Rica, I received from the LACM two workers of M. modestus collected in La Selva, Heredia province (10°26’N, 83°59’W), March 1974 and August 4, 1974 (# 0515-1740) in pitfall traps set at the forest litter by Talbot & Van Devender. From the INBC collection, I received several workers of M. modestus collected at Río Peñas Blancas, Alajuela province (10°19’N, 84°43’W), 800-950 m, by J. Longino (different acc. numbers and dates), including a gyne and a male (# 2019) collected in April 27, 1988. J. Longino also sent me two M. modestus workers from Reserva Biologica Hitgi-Cerere, Limón province, Costa Rica (09°40’N, 83°02’W), 200 m of altitude, collected in August 29, 1985, # 942-S.

From Venezuela, John Lattke kindly sent me two samples of M. modestus workers (24 an 13 workers respectively) from, Ayan Tepui , 1500 m of altitude (ca. Salto Angel) Estado Bolivar (5°57’N, 62°30’W), collected in November 19, 1984 by J. Lattke & K. Jaffé (leg. # 611), and southwestern Kamarcabarai Tepui , 1800 m, 50°53’N, 62°01’W, collected in May 24, 1986 by J. Lattke (leg. # 853) .

From Instituto Humboldt, I recently studied four workers collected in October 28, 2000 at Parque Nacional Farallones de Cali, Embalses de Alto Anchicaya Valle del Cauca, Colombia (03 26’N, 76°48’W), 650 m of altitude (W1), by S. Barrio and others. From the same locality and collection (altitude 900 m), I studied another sample of nine workers collected using Malaise traps in November 8 to 21, 2000 by S. Sarria (samples M. 1105, 1111, and 1114). From the IHVL collection, I studied a very tiny dealated gyne collected in Reserva Nacional La Planada, Nariño, 1850 m, in July to August 1995, by C. Estrada. The sculpturation on the head disk and mandibles is very much effaced, while in the mesopleura and over the propodeum the sculpture is much stronger than in the other studied gynes. However, this Colombian specimen agrees in all other characters with M. modestus , and could represent a microgyne, expected in a genus like Megalomyrmex where female reproductives vary in size and development from typical alate gynes. A worker from the same sample agrees with other M. modestus workers. I also studied another worker of the same species, from the same locality (01 09’N, 77°68’W), collected by F. Escobar in 1994 (leg. # 39).