Rhopalothrix isthmica

This species occurs in moderately seasonal to aseasonal wet forest, from sea level to 2000m elevation. All recent specimens are from Winkler or Berlese samples of sifted leaf litter. It is rare for ant species to occur across such a broad elevational spectrum, and given the considerable variability in setal pattern and wide geographic range, it may comprise multiple allopatric populations with unknown degrees of genetic divergence. In Honduras it was a rare cloud forest species at Comayagua and La Muralla and a rare lowland species along the north Caribbean coast. At La Union, in the mountains southeast of Zacapa, Guatemala, it was a rare species sympatric with the much more abundant Rhopalothrix megisthmica. In cloud forest on the slopes of Volcán Atitlán in western Guatemala it was abundant—occurring in 29 of 100 miniWinkler samples—and sympatric with the smaller Rhopalothrix atitlanica. (Longino & Boudinot, 2013)

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama.

Nomenclature

 *  isthmica. Acanthidris isthmicus Weber, 1941a: 188, figs. 4-7 (w.) PANAMA. Combination in Rhopalothrix: Brown & Kempf, 1960: 235.

Additional References

 * Longino, J.T. & Boudinot, B.E. 2013. New species of Central American Rhopalothrix Mayr, 1870 (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Zootaxa 3616, 301-324.