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Nylanderia mosaica
| Nylanderia mosaica | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Formicidae |
| Subfamily: | Formicinae |
| Tribe: | Lasiini |
| Genus: | Nylanderia |
| Species: | N. mosaica |
| Binomial name | |
| Nylanderia mosaica Williams, Williams, LaPolla & Lucky, 2025 | |
Photo Gallery
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Identification
Antennae relatively short, with scapes surpassing posterior margin by about a quarter of their length; bicolored, with yellow to yellow-brown head and mesosoma and medium to dark brown gaster; meso- and metacoxae yellow and at most somewhat lighter than mesosoma; light cuticular microsculpture resulting in subtle blue iridescence on head, mesosoma, and gaster; moderate cephalic pubescence.
Nylanderia mosaica workers most strongly resemble those of Nylanderia mendax and Nylanderia usul in appearance, though N. mosaica workers are easily separable based on their relatively small body size and bicolored appearance, with a yellow to yellow-brown head and mesosoma and medium to dark brown gaster.
Compare with: Nylanderia mendax, Nylanderia usul.
Keys including this Species
Distribution
This species is only known to moderate to high elevation forests in Costa Rica (Fig. 2B), where it is sympatric with only N. usul and no other species in American Clade I.
Williams et al. (2025), Fig. 2. Distributions of species: (A) N. austroccidua in the United States and northern Mexico, (B) species found across southern Mexico and Mesoamerica, and (C) N. docilis in South America. Maps were created using GPS coordinates listed in Table S1 and from the Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics (GABI; Guénard et al. 2017) database.
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Latitudinal Distribution Pattern
Latitudinal Range: 10.3° to 9.5°.
| North Temperate |
North Subtropical |
Tropical | South Subtropical |
South Temperate |
- Source: Williams et al., 2025
Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Costa Rica (type locality).
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. |
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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
Castes
Nomenclature
The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.
- mosaica. Nylanderia mosaica Williams et al., 2025: 580, figs. 52-56 (w.q.) COSTA RICA.
Type Material
- Holotype worker, COSTA RICA: Alajuela, 10km E of Monteverde, 10.30971 -84.72004, ±50m, elev. 890m, wet forest, sifted litter, 18.v.2014, J.T. Longino #JTL8692-s (USNM: USNMENT01131335).
- 1 paratype worker and 1 paratype queen with same locality data as holotype (USNM: USNMENT01130940, USNMENT01131335). 3 paratype workers, COSTA RICA: San José, Cerro Plano, 9.48264 -83.96259 ±10m, elev. 1070m, 4.vii.2015, ridgetop cloud forest, isolated peak with oak trees, leaf litter, ADMAC#Wa-E-06-2-25 (MNCR: USNMENT01131333, USNMENT01131334, USNMENT01131848).