Stenamma schmidti

Stenamma schmidti, as defined here, is a rather variable species. It inhabits tropical wet forest environments from sea level to about 2400 m, becoming most abundant in cloud forest habitats above 800 m. At some cloud forest sites, S. schmidti can be one of the most common ant species occupying the leaf litter. Despite this fact, the species is very cryptic and finding nests is an uncommon event. Most collections of S. schmidti are from Winkler or Berlese samples of sifted leaf litter or epiphyte mats. Nest collections have been made, but these are very rare for the leaf-litter dwelling variants and only slightly more common for the arboreal forms. Nests are very small, with only tens of workers, and a single egg-laying queen. Workers, when encountered, are very slow moving and freeze upon disturbance. Additional natural history notes specific to particular morphological variants are described below (Brenstetter, 2013).

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama.

Nomenclature

 *  schmidti. Stenamma schmidti Menozzi, 1931d: 198, fig. 6 (w.q.) COSTA RICA. Branstetter, 2013: 237 (w.q.m.).

Additional References

 * Branstetter, M.G. 2013. Revision of the Middle American clade of the ant genus Stenamma Westwood (Hymenoptera, Formicidae, Myrmicinae). ZooKeys 295, 1–277.