Pseudomyrmex salvini

This species is conﬁned to southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, where it occurs in or at the edge of mesic forest, at elevations ranging from 10 m to 990 m (mean 316 m; n = 35). One worker, from Pico Pijol, Honduras (leg. C. Hansson) (MZLU), has the elevation given as ‘2200 m’, but this is likely to be an error. Habitats recorded on specimen labels include littoral vegetation, rainforest, rainforest edge, mesophil forest, and roadside. Among the material examined by us, there were only four explicit nest series: ‘ex dead twig of liana’, ‘ex dead weed stalk’, ‘ex dead twig’, and ‘nest in twig’. Most collections consist of workers or dealate queens foraging on low vegetation. At Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz one of us (P.S.Ward) observed a salticid spider, apparently the dark cephalic morph of Synemosyna decipiens (Cambridge) (see Cutler 1985: 87), mimicking workers of P. salvini. (Ward & Branstetter, 2022)

Identification
Relatively large species (HW 1.12–1.21, LHT 0.96–1.12) with broad head and large eyes (see REL and REL2 values); frontal carinae separated by less than basal scape width; pronotum laterally submarginate, flattened, and with a weak longitudinal median depression; metanotal groove obsolete to absent; in proﬁle propodeum short and high, the dorsal face shorter than, and rounding insensibly into, the declivitous face; petiole elongate and gracile, with a well differentiated anterior peduncle (Fig. 17) (PLI 0.43–0.49, PL/HL 0.64–0.69); profemur slender; hind leg relatively long (LHT/HL 0.80–0.84). Head varying from sublucid to (in more southern populations) subopaque; anterior half of head between eyes densely punctulate-coriarious, punctures becoming sparser on posterior half (separated by more than their diameters), and with intervening reticulate-coriarious sculpture of varying reflectance. Standing pilosity sparse, conﬁned on the mesosoma dorsum to the pronotum (MSC 2-4). Head dark blackish-brown, remainder of body varying from contrastingly yellow-orange (except for transverse infuscated bands on abdominal tergites 4–6) to medium brown, appendages generally lighter. (Ward & Branstetter, 2022)

Pseudomyrmex salvini is a distinctive species, sister to all other members of the P. elongatulus group (Fig. 1). It is easily recognized by its large size, elongate eyes (more than one-half head length), broad head (worker CI 0.90–0.96, queen CI 0.81–0.84), short high propodeum (in the worker), and elongate petiole with well-developed anterior peduncle (Fig. 17). In populations from Veracruz the head contrasts strikingly with the lighter colored remainder of the body; farther southward and eastward the mesosoma and metasoma become increasingly infuscated and the contrast is muted. (Ward & Branstetter, 2022)

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico.

Nomenclature

 *  salvini. Pseudomyrma salvini Forel, 1899c: 94, pl. 4, fig. 8 (w.q.m.) MEXICO. Combination in Pseudomyrmex: Kempf, 1960a: 30.

Type Material

 * Syntype workers, queens, males, Teapa, Tabasco, Mexico (H. H. Smith) (BMNH, MHNG) [examined by Ward & Branstetter, 2022].

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

 * Ahuatzin D. A., E. J. Corro, A. Aguirre Jaimes, J. E. Valenzuela Gonzalez, R. Machado Feitosa, M. Cezar Ribeiro, J. Carlos Lopez Acosta, R. Coates, W. Dattilo. 2019. Forest cover drives leaf litter ant diversity in primary rainforest remnants within human-modified tropical landscapes. Biodiversity and Conservation 28(5): 1091-1107.
 * Branstetter M. G. and L. Sáenz. 2012. Las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de Guatemala. Pp. 221-268 in: Cano E. B. and J. C. Schuster. (eds.) 2012. Biodiversidad de Guatemala. Volumen 2. Guatemala: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, iv + 328 pp
 * Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
 * Del Toro, I., M. Vázquez, W.P. Mackay, P. Rojas and R. Zapata-Mata. Hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de Tabasco: explorando la diversidad de la mirmecofauna en las selvas tropicales de baja altitud. Dugesiana 16(1):1-14.
 * Fernández, F. and S. Sendoya. 2004. Lista de las hormigas neotropicales. Biota Colombiana Volume 5, Number 1.
 * Kempf W. W. 1960. Estudo sôbre Pseudomyrmex I. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 9: 5-32.
 * Kempf W. W. 1967. Estudos sôbre Pseudomyrmex. IV (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 12: 1-12.
 * Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
 * Longino J. T. 2013. Ants of Honduras. Consulted on 18 Jan 2013. https://sites.google.com/site/longinollama/reports/ants-of-honduras
 * Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
 * Vieira de Oliveira J. A., D. Martins da Silva, and F. A. Santana. 2014. Ant species diversity in ciliary forest and gallery forest areas in central Brazil. Advances in Entomology 2(1): 24-32.
 * Vásquez-Bolaños M. 2011. Lista de especies de hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) para México. Dugesiana 18: 95-133