Strumigenys ornata

Strumigenys ornata is a wide-ranging and common eastern North American species with a western distribution extending into Texas and Oklahoma, United States. Although not previously collected outside the USA, a specimen examined and housed at the MCZ was collected at high-altitude in Cerro Potosi, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, expanding the known range. This species has often been found in forested habitats nesting in litter, crevices, and log debris, but is rarely found in hollowed twigs or nuts on the ground where many other Strumigenys often nest (Brown, 1953; Duffield & Alpert, 2011; Booher et al., 2017; Booher, 2021).

Two workers were found near the kitchen midden of a colony of Aphaenogaster fulva which was nesting under a large stone in a rather moist hillside woods. Another colony was found in an almost identical situation in dense, oak woods. In the latter case a worker was first seen in a frequented gallery of A. fulva under a large stone. The nest was located about 3 cm. to one side of the stone, and consisted of an irregular cavity, perhaps just a crack in the soil, barely beneath the humus. It contained not more than 20 workers. Both localities were in Pike County. (Wesson and Wesson 1939)

Identification
Bolton (2000) - A member of the Strumigenys ornata-group. The remarkable form of the clypeal pilosity renders this species unmistakable. The distribution of specialised clypeal hairs is duplicated in Strumigenys dietrichi but in that species they are not bulbous apically nor strongly recurved, and the clypeus is bluntly pointed anteriorly.

Distribution
USA to Mexico; in eastern USA from Florida to Maryland and west to Iowa including Michigan; in eastern USA occurs in Oklahoma and Texas (Booher, 2021).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Nearctic Region: United States. Neotropical Region: Mexico.

Biology
Brown (1953) - Abundant ecological notes furnished by collectors indicate that ornata is most frequently taken in Berlese funnel samples of forest ground cover. Records in connection with large masses of rotten wood are few and indicate that nests of this sort are near or at the soil cover level, e.g., "under rotten stump" or "at base of rotten stump." The Wessons and others have seen nests in crevices in the soil or under stones, and specimens are frequently found in the nests of other, larger species of ants. Series from Berlese funnel batches frequently come mixed with other soil dwelling Strumigenys, indicating that the ants probably congregate in in areas where prey is concentrated

Brown (1964) - Leaf litter or “forest debris”, beech tree-hole mold berlesate, hardwood leaf litter, live oak on sand, under rotten branch, under bark of small pine log in litter (Wilson and Brown leg.).

Nomenclature

 *  ornata. Strumigenys ornata Mayr, 1887: 571 (footnote) (w.) U.S.A. Brown, 1953g: 66 (q.). Combination in S. (Cephaloxys): Emery, 1924d: 325; in S. (Trichoscapa): Smith, M.R., 1947f: 587; Creighton, 1950a: 308; in Smithistruma: Smith, M.R., 1951a: 828; Brown, 1953g: 65; in Pyramica: Bolton, 1999: 1673; in Strumigenys: Baroni Urbani & De Andrade, 2007: 125. See also: Bolton, 2000: 113.

Worker
Bolton (2000) - TL 2.0-2.2, HL 0.54-0.60, HW 0.35-0.38, CI 63-66, ML 0.06-0.08, MI 11-14, SL 0.26-0.30, SI 70-80, PW 0.23-0.26, AL 0.50-0.58 (20 measured).

Fully closed mandibles with a gap between basal tooth and anterior clypeal margin that is equal to or longer than the length of the basal tooth. In full-face view clypeus with a short transverse to feebly convex anterior margin; hair at anterolateral clypeal angle, above mandible, curved strongly away from the midline and bulbous apically. Two stout hairs proj ect from lateral clypeal margin on each side, bulbous apically and shallowly curved posteriorly. In anterior view clypeus with an apicodorsal series of 4-6 stout standing long hairs that radiate from the dorsal apex like the ribs of a fan, these hairs strongly bulbous at their apices and in profile strongly curved posteriorly. In profile clypeal dorsum with a pair of very long wire-like hairs that arise at about the midlength; each of these hairs is inclined posteriorly from just above its base, then curves smoothly upwards so that at least the apical half of the shaft is directed vertically or nearly so. Dorsolateral margin of head with 2 long flagellate hairs, one in apicoscrobal position the other anterior to this, above the eye; distribution of flagellate hairs otherwise as in Strumigenys cloydi.

Type Material
Bolton (2000) - Syntype workers, U.S.A. District of Columbia, Washington (Pergande) [examined].

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

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