The taxonomy and biology of this species is reviewed in Longino (1996). More recent studies of the relationship between Cordia alliodora and Azteca pittieri are Tillberg (2004), and Trager & Bruna (2006).
This species is the dominant inhabitant of the ant plant Cordia alliodora. Most Cordia alliodora plants in Costa Rica harbor colonies of A. pittieri. Founding queens can be found alone in Cordia nodes and never seem to found pleometrotically. Colonies are apparently monogynous, with workers, brood, and coccoid Hemiptera dispersed in nodes throughout the tree. Workers are aggressive and forage on the surface of the host tree, but do not generally forage off the host tree.
A set of collections of A. pittieri have been made from understory Lauraceae. I collected workers from small trees (either Ocotea or Licaria) at Tortuguero, and workers and alate queens from Ocotea nicaraguensis at Carara Biological Reserve. These were dispersed in live branch tips, with general colony structure and behavior much like the colonies in Cordia. INBio Parataxonomists collected isolated queens at Rancho Quemado on the Osa Peninsula.
Mexico to Panama. Costa Rica: widespread.
Taxonomic history
Menozzi, 1927d PDF: 337 (q.m.).See also: Wheeler, 1942 PDF: 237.Senior synonym of Azteca pittieri emarginatisquamis: Longino, 1996 PDF: 144.Senior synonym of Azteca patruelis: Longino, 2007 PDF: 43.
