Megalomyrmex cupecuara

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Megalomyrmex cupecuara
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Solenopsidini
Genus: Megalomyrmex
Species group: modestus
Species: M. cupecuara
Binomial name
Megalomyrmex cupecuara
Brandão, 1990

The type locality, Anchicaya, is described by Litte (1981) as “montane rain forest from 200 to 2000m, mean temperature 24°, anual rainfall ca. 2000mm, climate aseasonal”. (Brandão 1990)

Identification

Brandão (1990) - M. cupecuara can be readly distin­guished from all other species of Megalomyrmex by its transversally depressed propodeum.

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 3.8° to -4.1°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Colombia (type locality), Ecuador, Venezuela.

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

F. Fernández (IHVL) kindly loaned me the third known Colombian sample of M. cupecuara: 2 workers collected at Valle by R.F. Escalerete, 180 m, Bo(sque), August, 1995 [Usma & Aldaria, RSC-46].

Castes

Nomenclature

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

  • cupecuara. Megalomyrmex cupecuara Brandão, 1990b: 423, figs. 3, 11, 21-23 (w.m.) COLOMBIA, ECUADOR.
    • Type-material: holotype worker, 3 paratype workers, 8 paratype males.
    • Type-locality: holotype Colombia: Depto Valle del Cauca, Munic. Buenaventura, Anchicaya, 17-19.vii.1971 (W.L. Brown); paratypes: 3 workers, 4 males with same data, 1 paratype male Valle del Cauca, 4 km. E Sabaletos, 10.x.1975 (R.C. Wilkerson), 3 paratype males Ecuador: Prov. Pichincha, Tinaladnia, 16 km. SE S. Domingo de los Colorados, vi.1975 (S. & J. Peck).
    • [Note: Brandão, 1990b: 423, comments that MCZC has 12 more specimens from the Anchicaya series.]
    • Type-depositories: MCZC (holotype); MCZC, MIZA, MZSP (paratypes).
    • [Misspelled as capecuara by Fernández & Serna, 2019: 806.]
    • Status as species: Brandão, 1991: 354; Bolton, 1995b: 249; Brandão, 2003: 147; Fernández & Serna, 2019: 806.
    • Distribution: Colombia, Eduador.

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

Description

Worker

Mandibles smooth; anterior border of clypeus round, without median denticle, carinae or me­dian depression; frontal suture impressed; ca. 13 ocular facets at eye largest diameter: occipital margin not raised; 3-segmented club; promeso­ notal suture impressed dorsally interrupting the dorsal profile; mesostern um and metastern um without acrotergites; dorsal face and declivity of propodeum meeting in lateral tubercles. which delimit a median longitudinal depression: dorsal face transversally depressed (in side view); de­clivity smooth; dorsal anterior margin of petiole concave; dorsal margin of petiolar node, in frontal view, round; ventral face of petiole with an­teromedian denticle, without flange; ventral process of postpetiole globose.

Pilosity: suberect hairs (length from .2 to .5 mm) uniformly distributed over the entire body surface. Color: antennae and legs light-yellow. Body brown.

Male

First funicular segment larger than scape and other funicular segments; notaulus and parapsi­dal sutures impressed (although some specimens may have these sutures faintly impressed); dorsal margin of propodeum transversally depressed: declivity smooth: epipetiolar carina complete; petiolar node globose; postpetiole larger and lower than the petiole, without ventral process.

Type Material

Anchicaya. munic. Buenaventura. Depto. Valle del Cauca, Colombia (03°39'N, 76°56'W), holotype and 7 paratypes (3 workers, 4 males); 4Km E Sabaletos, Depto. Valle del Cauca, Colombia (03°48'N, 76°38'W). 1 paratype (male); Tinalandia, 16Km SE S. Domingo de los Colorados, prov. Pichincha, Ecuador (00°48'N, 76°38'W), 3 paratypes (male).

Holotype (worker). 2 paratypes (male) of Anchicaya and 1 paratype (male) from Tinalandia at Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard; 5 paratypes (3 workers and 2 males) from Anchicaya, 1 male from Sabaletos and 1 male from Tinalandia at Museu de Zoologia da USP; paratype (male) from Tinalandia at Facultad de Agronomia de Maracay, Venezuela.

The types from Anchicaya have been collected by W. L. Brown Jr. between 17 and 19 of July in 1971. The specimens were found associated in pairs in each pin, a male and a worker, suggest­ing that they been collected in the same nest. The Museum of Comparative Zoology collection houses 12 more specimens from this sample (7 workers and 5 males). Males from Tinalandia, collected by the Peck couple in June, 1975 and a male from Sabaletos, collected by R. C. Wilkerson in October, 10, 1975, are distinctly larger than the Anchicaya males. The genitalia preparations. however, indicate that they are conspecific.

Etymology

cupecu­ara, cupe meaning a hole (in the sense of a de­pression) at the cuara- back (dorsum) in Tupi.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Fernández F., E. E. Palacio, W. P. Mackay, and E. S. MacKay. 1996. Introducción al estudio de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de Colombia. Pp. 349-412 in: Andrade M. G., G. Amat García, and F. Fernández. (eds.) 1996. Insectos de Colombia. Estudios escogidos. Bogotá: Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, 541 pp
  • Ulyssea M. A., C. R. F. Brandao. 2013. Catalogue of Dacetini and Solenopsidini ant type specimens (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae) deposited in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil. Papies Avulsos de Zoologia 53(14): 187-209.