Wasmannia iheringi

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Wasmannia iheringi
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Attini
Genus: Wasmannia
Species: W. iheringi
Binomial name
Wasmannia iheringi
Forel, 1908

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Specimen Labels

Wasmannia iheringi, Wasmannia lutzi, Wasmannia affinis and Wasmannia scrobifera occur mostly with Wasmannia auropunctata and Wasmannia rochai in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil and/or the Amazon Forest in Brazil (Cuezzo et al. 2015, Longino and Fernández 2007).

Identification

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 10.35° to -14.83333333°.

 
North
Temperate 		North
Subtropical 		Tropical South
Subtropical 		South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Brazil (type locality), Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Biology

Longino & Fernández (2007) - Surprisingly, this species has been discovered in Costa Rica, where it inhabits the canopy of lowland rainforest on the Atlantic slope. Morphologically the Costa Rican specimens are identical to the types. It has been collected at La Selva Biological Station, at 500 m elevation on the Barva Transect, and at the old Carrillo station at 600 m in Braulio Carrillo National Park. The quantitative sampling by the ALAS project shows it to be a moderately abundant component of the arboreal fauna.

One nest has been observed, at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica. The nest was on the undersurface of a single leaf of a fuzzy-leaved Guarea growing along a stream. A 2 cm long felt-like carton roof covered a portion of the leaf between two veins. The nest contained 27 adult workers, one dealate queen, four adult males, and brood of various sizes. This observation is similar to Garbe ’ s collection from southeastern Brazil, suggesting a specialized nesting behavior that is the same in both Costa Rica and southeastern Brazil.

On another occasion at La Selva the species was observed in a patch of old second growth forest comprised of medium to large trees over abandoned cacao. A small patch was being felled for an experiment at La Selva and collecting was carried out in these newly-felled trees. A dense aggregation of workers and two dealate queens were found on a branch of a felled Coussapoa, suggesting that colonies can be polygynous.

Alate queens were collected at blacklights at La Selva in October 1991 .

We have also examined workers in Erwin’s fogging samples from Tambopata, Peru. The species is now known from three widely separated localities, but it is unknown whether these are disjunct populations or a result of undersampling in intervening regions.

Castes

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • iheringi. Wasmannia iheringi Forel, 1908c: 359 (w.q.) BRAZIL. See also: Longino & Fernández, 2007: 279.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

Type Material

Longino & Fernández (2007) - Prior to this report W. iheringi was known only from the type specimens. Forel ’ s description and specimen labels indicate the specimens were collected in Sao Paulo by von Ihering. The types also bear a pencil label with “ 2265. ” Luederwaldt (1926) referred to W. iheringi, stating “ Mr. E. Garbe found in Espirito Santo a small nest, constructed of fine carton [“ serragem fina ”], on a leaf of Cecropia. N. 2.265. ” Given the match of the collection numbers we assume these represent a single collection. We also presume Luederwaldt’s data are more accurate than Forel’s. Kempf (1972) lists only the type locality for the range of W. iheringi, suggesting it remained known only from the types at the time of his Neotropical catalogue.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Fichaux M., B. Bechade, J. Donald, A. Weyna, J. H. C. Delabie, J. Murienne, C. Baraloto, and J. Orivel. 2019. Habitats shape taxonomic and functional composition of Neotropical ant assemblages. Oecologia 189(2): 501-513.
  • Forel A. 1908. Ameisen aus Sao Paulo (Brasilien), Paraguay etc. gesammelt von Prof. Herm. v. Ihering, Dr. Lutz, Dr. Fiebrig, etc. Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Königlichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien 58: 340-418.
  • Franco W., N. Ladino, J. H. C. Delabie, A. Dejean, J. Orivel, M. Fichaux, S. Groc, M. Leponce, and R. M. Feitosa. 2019. First checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of French Guiana. Zootaxa 4674(5): 509-543.
  • Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
  • Kusnezov N. 1952. El género Wasmannia en la Argentina (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Acta Zoologica Lilloana 10: 173-182.
  • Longino J. T. and Fernández, F. 2007. Taxonomic review of the genus Wasmannia. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 80: 271-289
  • Luederwaldt H. 1918. Notas myrmecologicas. Rev. Mus. Paul. 10: 29-64.
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