The Neotropical species of the ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith: group of marginiventris Santschi.

Abstract

The present paper is a continuation of my series on the New World fauna of the dacetine ant genus Strumigenys Fr. Smith. Earlier parts, containing keys to the abbreviations for measure? ments and proportions, may be found in Jour. New York Ent. Soc. 61: 53-59, 101-110 (1953). Other parts have been pub? lished in the same journal, or are in press. The present section deals with two species, 8. marginiventris Santschi and S. longispinosa new species. The first of these has been considered as a subspecies of S. fusca Emery by Santschi, but actually, marginiventris is not close to fusca at all. S. longi? spinosa shares with S. marginiventris the general head form of the cordovensis group and the single preapical tooth. It is supposed that 8. marginiventris and 8. longispinosa are related to each other and to the cordovensis group, but, like all other assumed relationships among the New World Strumigenys, this one would bear much further thought and examination. The two species are similar in general size and habitus, and both are so far known from the Panama-Colombia area, where they have been collected on few occasions. Nothing direct is known of their biology, except that they are rain forest inhabitants.