Lenomyrmex inusitatus (Fernández, 2001)

Lenomyrmex inusitatus (Fernández, 2001) View in CoL

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LEUA- 00000066496 ; recordedBy: Yenifer Gutierrez; individualCount: 1; sex: female; occurrenceID: C6C8D14D-651B-577D-990C-B7F436758C3D; Taxon: scientificName: Lenomyrmex inusitatus ; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Arthropoda; class: Insecta; order: Hymenoptera ; family: Formicidae ; genus: Lenomyrmex ; specificEpithet: inusitatus ; scientificNameAuthorship: (Fernández, 2001); Location: continent: South America; country: Colombia; countryCode: CO; stateProvince: Caquetá; county: Florencia; locality: Av. Caraño, Vía Florencia-Suaza ; verbatimElevation: 1375 m; locationRemarks: Collected in leaf Litter; verbatimCoordinates: 01°42'34.3"N 75°43'5.9"W; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS 84; Event: samplingProtocol: Winkler; eventDate: 2023-09-30; Record Level: language: es; collectionID: RNC: 270; institutionCode: Universidad de la Amazonia (UDLA); basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen GoogleMaps

Diagnosis

This species can be recognised by its mesosoma smooth and shiny, with no erect hairs; propodeum with a pair of acute and well-defined spines; head foveolate, with median longitudinal striae (Fig. 11 View Figure 11 ) ( Fernández and Serna 2019).

Distribution

This is the first record of the genus and species for the Amazon Region. The species was previously known from southern Colombia ( Delsinne and Fernández 2011) and Ecuador ( Salazar et al. 2015). This finding highlights the importance of studying ants in transition zones, as valuable information can be obtained about the distribution of species considered primarily Andean.

Biology

Unusual species, rarely collected. According to Delsinne and Fernández (2011), L. inusitatus inhabits mainly leaf litter and modified mandibles may be related to their being specialised hunter ants, although their prey is not known.