Zasphinctus caledonicus

Distribution
This taxon was described from New Caledonia. Edward O. Wilson collected the holotye and a series of paratype workers from Ciu, near Mt. Canala at 300 meters elevation in rainforest on 31 December 1954 (#229)

Biology
The two type colonies were found in a small, isolated patch of broadleaf evergreen forest on the farm of Mr. D. Fere, about half a kilometer northwest of the Ciu Falls. This little woodlot did not exceed two acres in extent, and its floor had been badly disturbed by cattle. Most of the ants present were found underneath rocks embedded in the soil.

Colonies were quite large, one containing over 500 workers and the other over a thousand. That the colonies may have been in migration is suggested by the fact that they occupied poorly defined galleries in the soil which bore no sign of lengthy occupation. The brood of colony no. 195, collected on December 21, consisted of large numbers of mature larvae; two days later, about three-quarters of a sample of these larvae kept alive in a bottle had spun cocoons. The brood of colony no. 229, collected on December 31, consisted of large numbers of cocoons, all of which contained prepupae of indeterminate caste. These data suggest a high degree of synchronization of brood development, a condition usually associated in ants with a nomadic way of life.