Rhopalothrix weberi

Rhopalothrix weberi
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Attini
Genus:	Rhopalothrix
Species:	R. weberi
Binomial name
	Rhopalothrix weberi; Brown & Kempf, 1960 Specimen Labels
Synonyms
	Heptastruma wheeleri Weber, 1934;

This species occurs in lowland wet to moist forest, from 200–575m elevation. The recent collections are all from Winkler samples of sifted litter and rotten wood on the forest floor. Among the Project LLAMA specimens, seven are dealate queens and only two are workers, mostly from separate samples. This could reflect subterranean habits of the workers, with new queens dispersing up into the litter layer. (Longino & Boudinot, 2013)

Identification

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname (Guerrero et al., 2024).

Guerrero et al. (2024), Figure 2. Distribution map of Rhopalothrix species in Colombia.

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 23.133° to 4.732°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Cuba (type locality), Greater Antilles, Guatemala, Honduras, 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

Explore Overview of Rhopalothrix biology

Longino and and Boudinot (2013) - Knowledge of the biology of the Rhopalothrix isthmica clade of Rhopalothrix is conjectural; a nest has never been recovered and a live specimen never seen. What we know is based on locations and frequencies of capture using various mass-sampling methods. Specimens are known from wet to moderately seasonal forest, from sea level to 2140 m elevation. At higher elevation, they are found in diverse mesophyll forest and in forests with various combinations of Liquidambar and montane oak. In Costa Rica, they are restricted to the wet forests of the Atlantic slope, to 1500 m on the Barva Transect in the Cordillera Volcánica Central and to 800 m in the Cordillera de Tilarán. The genus is unknown from the Monteverde cloud forest at 1500 m, the lowland wet forests of the Osa Peninsula, and the lowland tropical dry forests of Guanacaste, in spite of intensive collecting efforts in these areas. Further north in Central America they can occur at higher elevations.

In quantitative sampling at La Selva Biological Station, in the Atlantic lowlands of Costa Rica, occurrences were relatively more frequent in soil/litter cores than in samples of sifted litter from the soil surface. This suggests that nests are subterranean, with workers only occasionally venturing up into the litter layer. Dealate queens are known for a few species, occurring occasionally in Winkler or Berlese samples. Alate queens of one La Selva species were found in canopy fogging samples, one each in two separate fogging events. Oddly, alate queens have not been found in the many Malaise samples from La Selva. Males are only known for Rhopalothrix apertor. ‎

Castes

Worker

Guerrero et al. (2024), Figure 10. Rhopalothrix weberi worker (IAvH-E-233235). A, full-face view. B, lateral view. C, mandible distinguishing the teeth of the apical fork; drawing inserted showing the arrangement of the teeth of the apical fork of the mandible. D, dorsal view. Scale bars: 0.3 mm.

Images from AntWeb


Queen (alate/dealate). Specimen code casent0629569. Photographer Brendon Boudinot, uploaded by University of Utah.	Owned by JTLC.


Worker. Specimen code casent0610659. Photographer Brendon Boudinot, uploaded by University of Utah.	Owned by JTLC.

Males

Males have yet to be collected.

Nomenclature

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

wheeleri. Heptastruma wheeleri Weber, 1934a: 55, fig. 13 (w.) CUBA. Longino & Boudinot, 2013: 323 (q.). [Junior secondary homonym of Rhopalothrix wheeleri Mann, 1922: 43, above.] Replacement name: Rhopalothrix weberi Brown & Kempf, 1960: 234.
weberi. Rhopalothrix weberi Brown & Kempf, 1960: 234. Replacement name for Heptastruma wheeleri Weber, 1934a: 55. [Junior secondary homonym of Rhopalothrix wheeleri Mann, 1922: 43.]

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

Description

Worker

Longino and Boudinot (2013) - (based on two workers from Tikal National Park, Guatemala). HW 0.38–0.39 (n=2); mandible with two closely-spaced, very short teeth at base, these basal teeth with broad confluent bases, either with distinct denticulate apices or completely confluent and forming a low lamina at base, a small denticle about mid-distance between basal teeth and base of subapical tooth, reclinate denticle at base of subapical tooth absent, subapical tooth shorter than width of mandible at base, only slightly longer than subapical tooth, intercalary teeth present but minute; labrum about as long as broad, with two long, bluntly triangular lobes, sinus between them deep, length of anterolateral lobe longer than or about equal to distance from base of sinus to transverse carina at base of labrum; anterior clypeal margin concave; erect setae on leading edge of scape stiff but narrow, hardly clavate, unlike the squamiform setae typical of many other species; arcuate promesonotal groove and metanotal groove weakly impressed; propodeal tooth right angled, infradental lamella thin, evenly and shallowly concave; first gastral tergite with sparse squamiform setae on posterior half, one specimen with five setae on posterior margin and three anteriorly, one specimen with seven and five, respectively.

Queen

Longino and Boudinot (2013) - HW 0.40–0.54 (n=5); mandible and labrum similar to worker; face shape similar to worker but with grooves and ridges more shallowly impressed; compound eye shorter than maximum width of scape, with 5–6 facets across longest axis; ocelli small, cuticle adjacent to ocelli marked with black pigment spots on evenly light brown background; shape of propodeal tooth, petiole and postpetiole similar to worker; shape of infradental lamella variable (see Comments); katepisternum and anepisternum large, convex, separated by broad groove; pubescence layer of abundant, short, curved setae covers mandible, face, scapes, legs, dorsal mesosoma and metasoma; abundant stiff erect setae on face, anterior edge of scape, side of head, dorsal mesosoma, dorsal gaster.

Type Material

Longino and Boudinot (2013) - Holotype, worker: Cuba, Las Villas: Casa Harvard near Central Soledad, 24 July 1933, in red clay from under stones and grass roots which had been run through a Berlese funnel (N.A. Weber) Museum of Comparative Zoology (not examined).

References

Longino J. T. and Boudinot B. E. 2013. New species of Central American Rhopalothrix Mayr, 1870 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zootaxa. 3616:301-324. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3616.4.1
Brown, W. L., Jr.; Kempf, W. W. 1960. A world revision of the ant tribe Basicerotini. Stud. Entomol. (n.s.) 3: 161-250 (page 234, Replacement name for Heptastruma wheeleri Weber)
Guerrero, R.J., Grajales-Andica, A.F., Fernández, F., Tocora, M.C., Fiorentino, G., García, D.R. 2024. The ants of the genus Rhopalothrix Mayr, 1870 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae) in Colombia. ZooKeys 1191, 129–150 (doi:10.3897/zookeys.1191.110418).
Varela-Hernández, F., Medel-Zosayas, B., Martínez-Luque, E.O., Jones, R.W., De la Mora, A. 2020. Biodiversity in central Mexico: Assessment of ants in a convergent region. Southwestern Entomologist 454: 673-686.
Weber, N. A. 1934a. Notes on neotropical ants, including the descriptions of new forms. Rev. Entomol. (Rio J.) 4: 22-59 (page 55, [Junior secondary homonym of Rhopalothrix wheeleri Mann, 1922: 43.])

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

Achury R., and A.V. Suarez. 2017. Richness and composition of ground-dwelling ants in tropical rainforest and surrounding landscapes in the Colombian Inter-Andean valley. Neotropical Entomology https://doi.org/10.1007/s13744-017-0565-4
Alayo D. P. 1974. Introduccion al estudio de los Himenopteros de Cuba. Superfamilia Formicoidea. Academia de Ciencias de Cuba. Instituto de Zoologia. Serie Biologica no.53: 58 pp. La Habana.
Branstetter M. G. and L. Sáenz. 2012. Las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de Guatemala. Pp. 221-268 in: Cano E. B. and J. C. Schuster. (eds.) 2012. Biodiversidad de Guatemala. Volumen 2. Guatemala: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, iv + 328 pp
Brown W. L., Jr. 1949. Revision of the ant tribe Dacetini: IV. Some genera properly excluded from the Dacetini, with the establishment of the Basicerotini new tribe. Trans. Am. Entomol. Soc. 75: 83-96.
Brown W. L., Jr., and W. W. Kempf. 1960. A world revision of the ant tribe Basicerotini. Stud. Entomol. (n.s.) 3: 161-250.
Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
Fontanla Rizo J.L. 1997. Lista preliminar de las hormigas de Cuba. Cocuyo 6: 18-21.
Fontenla J. L., and J. Alfonso-Simonetti. 2018. Classification of Cuban ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) into functional groups. Poeyana Revista Cubana de Zoologia 506: 21-30.
Fontenla Rizo J. L. 1997. Lista preliminar de las hormigas de Cuba (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Cocuyo 6: 18-21.
INBio Collection (via Gbif)
Kempf W. W. 1961. A survey of the ants of the soil fauna in Surinam (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Studia Entomologica 4: 481-524.
Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
Longino J. T. 2013. Ants of Nicargua. Consulted on 18 Jan 2013. https://sites.google.com/site/longinollama/reports/ants-of-nicaragua
Longino J. T., and B. E. Boudinot. 2013. New species of Central American Rhopalothrix Mayr, 1870 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zootaxa 3616: 301-324.
Longino J. T., and R. K. Colwell. 2011. Density compensation, species composition, and richness of ants on a neotropical elevational gradient. Ecosphere 2(3): 16pp.
Quiroz-Robledo L., and J. Valenzuela González. 2010. First record of the ant Rhopalothrix weberi Brown and Kempf 1960 (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae) for Mexico. Florida Entomologist. 93: 319- 320.
Vasquez-Bolanos M. 2011. Checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Mexico. Dugesiana 18(1): 95-133.
Vásquez-Bolaños M. 2011. Lista de especies de hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) para México. Dugesiana 18: 95-133
Weber N. A. 1934. Notes on neotropical ants, including the descriptions of new forms. Revista de Entomologia (Rio de Janeiro) 4: 22-59.