Wasmannia scrobifera Kempf

Longino, J. T. & Fernández, F., 2007, Taxonomic review of the genus Wasmannia., Advances in ant systematics (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): Homage to E. O. Wilson - 50 years of contributions. (Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 80), pp. 271-289 : 280

Wasmannia scrobifera Kempf

Wasmannia scrobifera Kempf , 1961: 512, figs. 14, 15. Holotype worker: Poeroe man kemisa, Surinam (van der Drift).

Comments

Kempf described this species from a single worker. Numerous collections are now known from Costa Rica, and we have also seen material from Colombia and Brazil (Bahia and Matto Grosso states).

In Costa Rica, this species is infrequently encountered. It inhabits mature lowland rainforest in the Atlantic lowlands. It has been collected in Winkler samples of sifted litter from the forest floor at Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve, Casa Plastico near Rara Avis, the 500 m site on the Barva Transect, and La Selva Biological Station. Quantitative sampling by the ALAS project reveals it to be a low density species occurring most often in fogging samples, and less often in Winkler and Berlese samples of forest floor litter (Table 2). Dinah Davidson collected it in a Piper plant at La Selva. Mary Cornelius, an OTS student, found a nest in a leaf domatium of an ant-plant (Tococa, Melastomataceae) at Tortuguero, but it contained only workers and brood. Grant Gentry found small carton nests under leaves at La Selva (pers. comm.). Workers have been collected from the stomachs of dendrobatid frogs in the Choco region of Colombia. These results suggest that the species may nest in the low arboreal zone yet forage in the leaf litter on the forest floor.