Dorymyrmex xerophylus

The Magdalena types were collected with sausage baits, between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. Apparently, D. xerophylus prefers, like other Dorymyrmex, open areas of dry forests in lowlands. Specimens were found in dry forest of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, dominated by Poaceae. This habitat is subjected to occasional human disturbances resulting from logging. Ants collected in La Guajira live in restored areas of opencast coal mines, abandoned 10 years ago. (Cuezzo and Guerrero 2011)

Identification
Cuezzo and Guerrero (2011) - Worker Small ants, TLI: <117. Head oval in full-face view, lateral margins parallel, and posterior margin strongly convex. Compound eyes not surpassing the sides of cephalic capsule. Propodeal tubercle short, stout, and lower than mesonotum. Pubescence dense and golden.

D. xerophylus is close to Dorymyrmex goeldii but differ by size, pubescence, and color. In Colombia, only this two species have the posterior margin of head strongly convex and head more than twice longer than wide (CI: 73-74 and 77–40 for D. xerophylus and D. goeldii, resp.).

Distribution
Known only from the type material.

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Colombia.

Castes
Known only from the worker caste.

Nomenclature

 *  xerophylus. Dorymyrmex xerophylus Cuezzo & Guerrero, 2011: 21, figs. 12a-c, 14 (w) COLOMBIA.

Worker
Holotype (Paratype): HL: 0.60 (0.62). HW: 0.44 (0.46). EL: 0.18 (0.18). EW: 0.12 (0.12). SL: 0.52 (0.54). WL: 0.70 (070). CI: 73 (74). SI: 87 (87). REL: 41 (39). OI: 67 (67). TLI: 117 (113).

Concolorous, light brown; only tergites 2 and 4 of gaster, darker. Head: longer than wide. Mandibles feebly striate (only seen at more than 100x), with 4 teeth and 2 denticles. Compound eye well-developed in the first part of head in full-face view. Psammophore with only few hairs disposed in the central part of ventral cephalic face, not reaching the oral cavity; those hairs are equidistant between the foramen magnum and the oral cavity. Scapes short (SI = 87). Mesosoma: dorsal face of pronotum with two erect hairs lengthless than the greatest width of the antennal scape. Mesonotum straight in profile, lower than pronotum, only interrupted in its posterior end, forming a declivitous face continuous with propodeum. Metasoma: petiolar scale wide, thin and rounded apically.

Type Material
Holotype. 1w, Magdalena, Santa Marta, Vereda Mosquito,, 96 m, manual collection; 03 Jan 2008, R. Guerrero, coll., COLOMBIA (ICN). Paratypes: 1w, La Guajira, Zona El Cerrej ´ on,, 240 m, COLOMBIA, pitfall trap, 19 Dec 2006, R. Guerrero, coll., (ICN); 1w, Magdalena, Santa Marta, Vereda Mosquito, , 96m, COLOMBIA, manual collection; 03 Jan 2008, R. Guerrero, coll., (CEUM).

Etymology
The specific name is in apposition, refers to the extremely arid environments where D. xerophylus usually nests.