Cephalotes solidus ( Kempf, 1974 )

Pazmiño-Palomino, Alex & Troya, Adrian, 2022, Ants of Ecuador: new species records for a megadiverse country in South America, Revista Brasileira de Entomologia (e 20210089) 66 (2), pp. 1-15 : 7

Cephalotes solidus ( Kempf, 1974)

Figs. 13 , 21D

Material examined. Ecuador. Napo: Jatun Sacha Biological Reserve , 1.06667°S, 77.6167°W, 450m, 1☿, 2008-12-03, Troya, A. & Vizuete, J., fogging ( MEPN) ; same information, except: 3☿, 2008-12-04, ( MEPN) ; Orellana: Parque Nacional Yasuní, 27 Km SSE Limoncocha , 0.625226°S, 76.4967°W, 207m, 1☿, 2008-05-19, Troya, A., fogging ( MEPN) ; Parque Nacional Yasuní , 38 km SE Limoncocha, 0.66667°S, 76.3833°W, 120m, 1☿, 2005-07-05, Argoti, A., fogging ( MEPN) ; Sucumbíos: Nuevo Sucumbíos, 0.229222°S, 77.3263°W, 655m, 1☿, 2005-12-27, Troya, A., fogging ( MEPN) .

Comments. The morphological features of C. solidus are unique in the genus, thus reflecting its “isolated” position in the Cephalotes phylogeny sensu De Andrade and Baroni Urbani (1999) where it is the sole member of its homonym clade. Cephalotes solidus is easily distinguished from other Cephalotes mainly by the almost complete absence of spinescence and lamellae on the head and mesosoma. The humeral dorsum is the only exception which shows a slightly developed, acute denticle; the petiolar and postpetiolar nodes are usually devoid of spines as well. According to Kempf’s (1974) description, the petiolar node shows [a pair] of “prominent, stout denticle” (p. 74). No information is known about the natural history of this morphologically singular species. The specimens examined in our study were collected through canopy fogging in well-preserved, lowland Amazonian rain forests, so we assume it is arboreal. This species was previously recorded only in Brazil (Acre, Amazonas) ( Janicki et al., 2016; Oliveira et al. 2021).

Figures

Figure 13 Cephalotes solidus (Kempf) (worker,MEPN 28447):A) dorsal view,B) frontal view, C) profile. Images by Adrian Troya.Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 21 Geographic distribution of the species examined in the present study.