Solenopsis vinsoni Pacheco & Mackay 2013

Longino, 1 Mar 2014: This species occurs in wet to moist forest habitats, in the leaf litter on the ground. Workers are most often encountered in Winkler and Berlese samples. Minor and major workers occasionally recruit to baits on the ground.

I have never found a nest of this species but it must be subterranean. In the Project ALAS sampling at La Selva Biological Station, collections of minor workers together with major workers were relatively frequent in Berlese samples, which incorporate soil to 15cm deep. In contrast, minor workers were common but major workers rare in Winkler samples, which sample only the surface litter.

Size small; color dirty yellow brown; mandible with basal tooth small relative to third tooth, mandibles subfalcate; clypeal carinae moderately divergent and projecting as strong clypeal teeth; compound eye circular, black, composed of several fused ommatidia; metanotal groove weakly impressed, promesonotum and dorsal face of propodeum more or less in same plane; postpetiole with pronounced anteroventral process; polymorphic, with a distinct major worker caste.

Solenopsis vinsoni Pacheco & Mackay, 2013 PDF: 348, figs 341-346, map 82 (w.q.) COSTA RICA. Neotropic. Primary type information: Holotype w (MCZC), COSTA RICA, Guanacaste, Loma Barbudal, 3-vi-1989, S. B. Vinson # 12039 AntCat AntWiki