Holcoponera porcata

A dweller of premontane to montane humid forests. J. Longino (pers. comm.) found an incipent nest in Cecropia insignis. One nest midden contained mostly the remains of beetles: scotylids, bostrichids, curculionids, besides isopods. Nests from one population (Venezuela, Tachira) consistently had their brood chambers irregularly wall-papered with the remains of pupal cocoons.

Identification
A member of the porcata subgroup (in the striatula species group). Costate species, median longitudinal costae on pronotum inscribed anteriorly by transverse costae; posterodorsal mesosomal sculpture variable: concentric ovaloids with longitudinal or transverse orientation, or with longitudinal costae inscribed within whorls; piceous body with ferruginous legs. The study of a series from Venezuela representing several colonies from different populations show great variability for dorsal mesosomal sculpturing. (Lattke 1995)

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists
Neotropical Region: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela.

Nomenclature

 *  porcata. Ectatomma (Holcoponera) porcatum Emery, 1896g: 48 (w.) COSTA RICA. Forel, 1908b: 38 (q.m.). Combination in Holcoponera: Emery, 1911d: 40; in Gnamptogenys: Brown, 1958g: 229. Senior synonym of magnifica: Lattke, 1995: 180.
 * magnifica. Holcoponera magnifica Santschi, 1921g: 81 (w.) BRAZIL. Combination in Gnamptogenys: Brown, 1958g: 228. Junior synonym of porcata: Lattke, 1995: 180.