Neivamyrmex asper

Neivamyrmex asper
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Dorylinae
Genus:	Neivamyrmex
Species:	N. asper
Binomial name
	Neivamyrmex asper; Borgmeier, 1955 Specimen Labels

Photo Gallery

The tiny Neivamyrmex asper is a leaf-litter raider. Neivamyrmex is the species-richest army ant genus in the Neotropics, but they are very seldom observed, supposedly because they are smaller and have a more cryptic lifestyle than the other army ants. Photo by Phil Hoenle.

Identification

Jack Longino:

Face densely foveolate-granular, matte to slightly shiny; dorsum of postpetiole and first gastral tergite smooth and shining, contrasting with foveate-granular sculpture of petiole; in face view posterolateral margins of head without strongly produced triangular projections.

Distribution

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 20.107° to 10.33333°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Costa Rica (type locality), Mexico.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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.

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.

Biology

Jack Longino: This species occurs in Atlantic slope wet forest. At Tortuguero I found a colony inside a nasutiform termite nest. Workers were scattered throughout, but separate from the areas inhabited by termites. Brood occurred in spatially separated small batches of 10-20 larvae. In the Peñas Blancas Valley east of Monteverde, at 800m and 900m elevation, I twice observed nocturnal columns on the ground. During the ALAS expeditions on the Barva Transect, workers were obtained in a Winkler sample from the 500m site and a sweepnet sample from the 300m site.

Castes

Nomenclature

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

asper. Neivamyrmex asper Borgmeier, 1955: 547 (w.) COSTA RICA.
- Type-material: 11 syntype workers.
- Type-locality: Costa Rica: Zent, 8.xii.1911 (W.M. Wheeler).
- Type-depositories: MCZC, MZSP.
- Status as species: Kempf, 1972a: 153; Watkins, 1976: 12 (in key); Bolton, 1995b: 287.
- Distribution: Costa Rica.

Description

References

Borgmeier, T. 1955. Die Wanderameisen der neotropischen Region. Stud. Entomol. 3: 1-720 (page 547, worker described)
Borowiec, M.L. 2019. Convergent evolution of the army ant syndrome and congruence in big-data phylogenetics. Systematic Biology 68, 642–656 (doi:10.1093/sysbio/syy088).
Cantone S. 2017. Winged Ants, The Male, Dichotomous key to genera of winged male ants in the World, Behavioral ecology of mating flight (self-published).

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
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/