Holcoponera porcata

A dweller of premontane to montane humid forests. J. Longino (pers. comm.) found an incipent nest in Cecropia insignis. One nest midden contained mostly the remains of beetles: scotylids, bostrichids, curculionids, besides isopods. Nests from one population (Venezuela, Tachira) consistently had their brood chambers irregularly wall-papered with the remains of pupal cocoons.

Identification
A member of the porcata subgroup (in the striatula species group). Costate species, median longitudinal costae on pronotum inscribed anteriorly by transverse costae; posterodorsal mesosomal sculpture variable: concentric ovaloids with longitudinal or transverse orientation, or with longitudinal costae inscribed within whorls; piceous body with ferruginous legs. The study of a series from Venezuela representing several colonies from different populations show great variability for dorsal mesosomal sculpturing. (Lattke 1995)

Key to New World Gnamptogenys Species

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela.

Nomenclature

 *  porcata. Ectatomma (Holcoponera) porcatum Emery, 1896g: 48 (w.) COSTA RICA. Forel, 1908b: 38 (q.m.). Combination in Holcoponera: Emery, 1911d: 40; in Gnamptogenys: Brown, 1958g: 229. Senior synonym of magnifica: Lattke, 1995: 180.
 * magnifica. Holcoponera magnifica Santschi, 1921g: 81 (w.) BRAZIL. Combination in Gnamptogenys: Brown, 1958g: 228. Junior synonym of porcata: Lattke, 1995: 180.