Labidus spininodis

Identification
Jack Longino:

Worker: color brown; face microsculptured, matte; mesosoma relatively gracile, dorsal face of propodeum as long as or longer than posterior face; ventral margin of petiole with a pronounced anteroventral tooth.

Similar species: Labidus praedator.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru.

Biology
Baudier et al. (2015) studied thermal tolerances of a variety of army ant workers. Labidus spininodis was one of a number of army ant species sampled with a life history that includes both below and above ground activities.

Jack Longino: This species is morphologically nearly identical to Labidus praedator, differing only in the presence of a ventral petiolar spine. Its behavior and general habitat preferences also seem the same. Like L. praedator, it can be found in lowland wet forests, but reaches highest density at mid-elevation sites. Labidus spininodis is less often encountered than L. praedator, and I have a slight sense that L. spininodis prefers primary forest areas while L. praedator can be found abundantly in second growth.

Labidus spininodis has massive carpet raids, like L. praedator.

Males of L. spininodis (as Labidus curvipes) are not attracted to lights and are possibly diurnal. The ALAS project, a large-scale arthropod survey based at La Selva Biological Station, has collected four males. One was in a Malaise trap at La Selva. The other three were in one Malaise trap sample and two flight intercept trap samples from the 500m site on the Barva transect. No male has ever been captured in the extensive programs of blacklight sampling. In contrast, males of L. praedator occasionally occur in blacklight samples.

Nomenclature

 * . Eciton spininode Emery, 1890b: 38 (w.) COSTA RICA.
 * Type-material: syntype workers (number not stated).
 * Type-locality: Costa Rica: Alajuela, 1889 (A. Alfaro).
 * Type-depositories: BMNH, MHNG, MSNG, MZSP.
 * [Also described as new by Emery, 1894k: 45.]
 * Borgmeier, 1955: 118 (s.).
 * Combination in Eciton (Labidus): Emery, 1910b: 23;
 * combination in Labidus: Borgmeier, 1953: 6.
 * Status as species: Dalla Torre, 1893: 6; Forel, 1899c: 28; Emery, 1900a: 193; Emery, 1910b: 23; Santschi, 1929f: 84; Borgmeier, 1955: 118 (redescription); Kempf, 1972a: 128; Watkins, 1976: 8 (in key); Bolton, 1995b: 220; Palacio, 1999: 154 (in key); Guénard & Economo, 2015: 226; Palacio, 2019: 607.
 * Distribution: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica.

Taxonomic Notes
Jack Longino: By a process of elimination and geographic correspondence, Labidus curvipes, a species known only from males, must be the male of L. spininodis.

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Basset Y., L. Cizek, P. Cuenoud, R. K. Didham, F. Guilhaumon, O. Missa, V. Novotny, F. Odegaards, T. Roslin, J. Schmidl et al. 2012. Arthropod diversity in a tropical forest. Science 338(6113): 1481-1484.
 * Borgmeier T. 1953. Vorarbeiten zu einer Revision der neotropischen Wanderameisen. Studia Entomologica 2: 1-51.
 * Borgmeier T. 1955. Die Wanderameisen der neotropischen Region. Studia Entomologica 3: 1-720.
 * Bustos H., J. 1994. Contribucion al conocimiento de al fauna de hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) del occidente del Departamento de Narino (Colombia). Bol. Mus. Ent. Univ. Valle 2(1,2):19-30
 * Emery C. 1894. Estudios sobre las hormigas de Costa Rica. Anales del Museo Nacional de Costa Rica 1888-1889: 45-64.
 * Emery C. 1900. Nuovi studi sul genere Eciton. Memorie della Reale Accademia delle Scienze dell'Istituto di Bologna (5)8: 173-188
 * Emery C. 1910. Hymenoptera. Fam. Formicidae. Subfam. Dorylinae. Genera Insectorum 102: 1-34.
 * Fernandes I., and J. de Souza. 2018. Dataset of long-term monitoring of ground-dwelling ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the influence areas of a hydroelectric power plant on the Madeira River in the Amazon Basin. Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e24375.
 * Fernández F., E. E. Palacio, W. P. Mackay, and E. S. MacKay. 1996. Introducción al estudio de las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de Colombia. Pp. 349-412 in: Andrade M. G., G. Amat García, and F. Fernández. (eds.) 1996. Insectos de Colombia. Estudios escogidos. Bogotá: Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales, 541 pp
 * Fernández, F. and S. Sendoya. 2004. Lista de las hormigas neotropicales. Biota Colombiana Volume 5, Number 1.
 * INBio Collection (via Gbif)
 * Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
 * Kumar, A. and S. O'Donnell. 2007. Fragmentation and elevation effects on birdarmy ant interactions in neotropical montane forest of Costa Rica. Journal of Tropical Ecology 23:581-590
 * Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
 * Miranda P. N., F. B. Baccaro, E. F. Morato, M. A. Oliveira. J. H. C. Delabie. 2017. Limited effects of low-intensity forest management on ant assemblages in southwestern Amazonian forests. Biodivers. Conserv. DOI 10.1007/s10531-017-1368-y
 * O'Donnell S., J. Lattke, S. Powell, and M. Kaspari. 2007. Army ants in four forests: geographic variation in raid rates and species composition. Journal of Animal Ecology 76: 580-589.
 * O'Donnell S., and A. Kumar. 2006. Microclimatic factors associated with elevational changes in army ant density in tropical montane forest. Ecological Entomology 31: 491498.
 * Watkins J. F., II 1976. The identification and distribution of New World army ants (Dorylinae: Formicidae). Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 102 pp
 * de Souza J. L. P., F. B. Baccarob, V. L. Landeirob, E. Franklinc, and W. E. Magnussonc. 2012. Trade-offs between complementarity and redundancy in the use of different sampling techniques for ground-dwelling ant assemblages. Applied Soil Ecology 56: 63 73.