Dolichoderus lamellosus

Dolichoderus lamellosus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dolichoderinae
Tribe:	Dolichoderini
Genus:	Dolichoderus
Species:	D. lamellosus
Binomial name
Dolichoderus lamellosus (Mayr, 1870) Specimen labels
Synonyms
Dolichoderus lamellosa missionensis Santschi, 1916

Photo Gallery

• 

  Nest of Dolichoderus lamellosus observed at Santa Rosa National Park, 13 July 1985. Photo by Jack Longino.
• 

  Same nest Photo by Jack Longino.

Identification

Color black with some orange on the legs; generally devoid of erect setae; mesonotum in dorsal view wider than long. Similar to Dolichoderus laminatus. (Jack Longino)

Distribution

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia (type locality), Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela.

Distribution based on AntMaps

Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Biology

MacKay (1993): Swain (1977) reported on the biology of this species. These ants are often found on trunks and in canopies of tropical trees, especially mango trees, and are often together with workers of Dolichoderus bispinosus. Workers are primarily active at night. They seem to be most common in riparian sites and areas with waterlogged soils where few other ant species occur. Nests are found in and under bark of trees (Lattke, 1986), especially of wild cashew or espavé (Anacardium excelsum, pers. obs.), and in hollow stems, at a height of 0.5 - 25 meters. The nest may be constructed of fine carton. Nests are apparently monogynous and populations are not known to exceed 80 workers. They also nest in bromeliads, among roots of orchids and in abandoned moth cocoons, often together with D. bispinosus. Works move rapidly, but are relatively non-aggressive when disturbed and dedicate themselves to rescue brood instead of defend the nest. Workers do not produce a dolichoderine odor. Females are attracted to lights.

The species is a low density element of the La Selva canopy fauna, and D. bispinosus does not occur there, so any association with C. bispinosus is facultative. I have observed nests of D. lamellosus twice. Once was in the dry forest habitat of Santa Rosa National Park. I was collecting at night along the nature trail near the Casona. I found a very cryptic nest in an elliptical depression in a broad tree trunk. The nest was about 10cm long and completely covered with a smooth expanse of fine carton construction. I spotted the nest because an aggregation of workers and a few alate queens were standing on the outer surface of the carton, possibly due to a nuptial flight. Inside the nest there were some larger brood and workers but no small brood or queen, suggesting that this was just a colony fragment and more were nesting elsewhere. The second nest was in the Santa Marta area of Colombia, where workers and brood were scattered throughout an abandoned termite nest in the fork of a small tree. (Jack Longino).

Castes

Worker

• The following images are provided by AntWeb
• 

  Head view

• 

  Side view

• 

  Top view

• 

  Specimen labels

Nomenclature

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

• lamellosus. Hypoclinea lamellosa Mayr, 1870a: 390 (q.) COLOMBIA. Emery, 1894c: 233 (w.); Kempf, 1959b: 264 (m.). Combination in Dolichoderus: Emery, 1890a: 70; in D. (Monacis): Emery, 1894c: 228; in Monacis: Kempf, 1959b: 263; in Dolichoderus: Shattuck, 1992c: 77. Senior synonym of missionensis: Kempf, 1959b: 263. See also: Mackay, 1993b: 65.
• missionensis. Dolichoderus (Monacis) lamellosa var. missionensis Santschi, 1916e: 390, fig. (w.) ARGENTINA. Subspecies of schulzi: Santschi, 1923c: 269. Junior synonym of lamellosus: Kempf, 1959b: 263.

References

• Emery, C. 1890a [1889]. Alcune considerazioni sulla fauna mirmecologica dell'Africa. Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 21: 69-75 (page 70, Combination in Dolichoderus)
• Emery, C. 1894d. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. VI-XVI. Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 26: 137-241 (page 233, worker described)
• Emery, C. 1894d. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. VI-XVI. Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 26: 137-241 (page 228, Combination in D. (Monacis))
• Kempf, W. W. 1959c. A revision of the Neotropical ant genus Monacis Roger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Stud. Entomol. (n.s.) 2: 225-270 (page 264, male described)
• Kempf, W. W. 1959c. A revision of the Neotropical ant genus Monacis Roger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Stud. Entomol. (n.s.) 2: 225-270 (page 263, Combination in Monacis)
• Kempf, W. W. 1959c. A revision of the Neotropical ant genus Monacis Roger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Stud. Entomol. (n.s.) 2: 225-270 (page 263, Senior synonym of missionensis)
• Mackay, W. P. 1993b. A review of the New World ants of the genus Dolichoderus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 22: 1-148 (page 65, see also)
• Mayr, G. 1870a. Formicidae novogranadenses. Sitzungsber. Kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien Math.-Naturwiss. Cl. Abt. I 61: 370-417 (page 390, queen described)
• Shattuck, S. O. 1992c. Generic revision of the ant subfamily Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 21: 1-181 (page 77, Combination in Dolichoderus)

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

• Adams B. J., S. A. Schnitzer, and S. P. Yanoviak. 2016. Trees as islands: canopy ant species richness increases with the size of liana-free trees in a Neotropical forest. Ecography doi: 10.1111/ecog.02608
• Adams B. J., S. A. Schnitzer, and S. P. Yanoviak. 2019. Connectivity explains local ant community structure in a Neotropical forest canopy: a large-scale experimental approach. Ecology 100(6): e02673.
• Baroni Urbani C. 1977. Katalog der Typen von Formicidae (Hymenoptera) der Sammlung des Naturhistorischen Museums Basel (2. Teil). Mitt. Entomol. Ges. Basel (n.s.) 27: 61-102.
• Bezdeckova K., P. Bedecka, and I. Machar. 2015. A checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Peru. Zootaxa 4020 (1): 101–133.
• Brandao, C.R.F. 1991. Adendos ao catalogo abreviado das formigas da regiao neotropical (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Rev. Bras. Entomol. 35: 319-412.
• CSIRO Collection
• Costa-Milanez C. B., G. Lourenco-Silva, P. T. A. Castro, J. D. Majer, and S. P. Ribeiro. 2014. Are ant assemblages of Brazilian veredas characterised by location or habitat type? Braz. J. Biol. 74(1): 89-99.
• Cuezzo, F. 1998. Formicidae. Chapter 42 in Morrone J.J., and S. Coscaron (dirs) Biodiversidad de artropodos argentinos: una perspectiva biotaxonomica Ediciones Sur, La Plata. Pages 452-462.
• Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
• Emery C. 1890. Studii sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital. 22: 38-8
• Emery C. 1894. Estudios sobre las hormigas de Costa Rica. Anales del Museo Nacional de Costa Rica 1888-1889: 45-64.
• Emery C. 1894. Studi sulle formiche della fauna neotropica. VI-XVI. Bullettino della Società Entomologica Italiana 26: 137-241.
• Emery C. 1913. Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Dolichoderinae. Genera Insectorum 137: 1-50.
• Fernández, F. and S. Sendoya. 2004. Lista de las hormigas neotropicales. Biota Colombiana Volume 5, Number 1.
• 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. 1959. A revision of the Neotropical ant genus Monacis Roger (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Studia Entomologica (n.s.)2: 225-270.
• Kempf W. W. 1972. A new species of the dolichoderine ant genus Monacis Roger, from the Amazon, with further remarks on the genus (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Revista Brasileira de Biologia 32: 251-254.
• Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
• Kusnezov N. 1953. La fauna mirmecológica de Bolivia. Folia Universitaria. Cochabamba 6: 211-229.
• Kusnezov N. 1978. Hormigas argentinas: clave para su identificación. Miscelánea. Instituto Miguel Lillo 61:1-147 + 28 pl.
• Longino J. T. 2013. Ants of Nicargua. Consulted on 18 Jan 2013. https://sites.google.com/site/longinollama/reports/ants-of-nicaragua
• Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
• Mackay, W.P. 1993. A review of the New World ants of the genus Dolichoderus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Sociobiology 22(1):1-148
• Nascimento Santos M., J. H. C. Delabie, and J. M. Queiroz. 2019. Biodiversity conservation in urban parks: a study of ground-dwelling ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Rio de Janeiro City. Urban Ecosystems https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-019-00872-8
• Pires de Prado L., R. M. Feitosa, S. Pinzon Triana, J. A. Munoz Gutierrez, G. X. Rousseau, R. Alves Silva, G. M. Siqueira, C. L. Caldas dos Santos, F. Veras Silva, T. Sanches Ranzani da Silva, A. Casadei-Ferreira, R. Rosa da Silva, and J. Andrade-Silva. 2019. An overview of the ant fauna (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of the state of Maranhao, Brazil. Pap. Avulsos Zool. 59: e20195938.
• Ribas C. R., J. H. Schoereder, M. Pic, and S. M. Soares. 2003. Tree heterogeneity, resource availability, and larger scale processes regulating arboreal ant species richness. Austral Ecology 28(3): 305-314.
• Santschi F. 1916. Formicides sudaméricains nouveaux ou peu connus. Physis (Buenos Aires). 2: 365-399.
• Schoereder J. H., T. G. Sobrinho, M. S. Madureira, C. R. Ribas, and P. S. Oliveira. 2010. The arboreal ant community visiting extrafloral nectaries in the Neotropical cerrado savanna. Terrestrial Arthropod Reviews 3: 3-27.
• Shattuck S. O. 1994. Taxonomic catalog of the ant subfamilies Aneuretinae and Dolichoderinae (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). University of California Publications in Entomology 112: i-xix, 1-241.
• Vittar, F. 2008. Hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de la Mesopotamia Argentina. INSUGEO Miscelania 17(2):447-466
• Wild, A. L.. "A catalogue of the ants of Paraguay (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)." Zootaxa 1622 (2007): 1-55.
• da Silva de Oliveira A. B., and F. A. Schmidt. 2019. Ant assemblages of Brazil nut trees Bertholletia excelsa in forest and pasture habitats in the Southwestern Brazilian Amazon. Biodiversity and Conservation 28(2): 329-344.