This species is a common generalized Paratrechina on the Pacific slope. It is one of the common species in the lowland wet forests of the Osa Peninsula and surrounding areas, and also in drier Guanacaste habitats such as Finca La Pacifica and the bosque humedo of Santa Rosa National Park. In these areas it is common at baits and extrafloral nectaries in the low arboreal zone, and it is common in Winkler samples of sifted litter from the forest floor. In the northern Pacific areas, it extends up the slope to the edge of cloud forest. I have collected it as a rare species in the Monteverde community area, and also just below the Cacao station in the Guanacaste Conservation Area.
It is less abundant on the Atlantic slope, where it tends to be restricted to drier, more exposed microhabitats. At La Selva Biological Station it is moderately common in canopy fogging samples, but is rare in Winkler samples from the forest floor. Also, it does not extend up the mountain slope on the Atlantic side. I have not collected it at an elevation higher than La Selva.
Nests are in ephemeral cavities. I have found nests under bark flaps of rotting wood and under epiphyte mats. Foragers are active day and night.
Southern Mexico to Costa Rica, Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad, Brazil (Cear‡). Costa Rica: lowlands of both Atlantic and Pacific slopes.
Extant: 3 valid subspecies
Prenolepis vividula var. guatemalensis Forel, 1885a PDF: 348 (w.q.) GUATEMALA. Neotropic. AntCat AntWiki HOLTaxonomic history
Wheeler, 1905j PDF: 392 (m.); Wheeler & Wheeler, 1986d PDF: 336 (l.).Combination in Prenolepis (Nylanderia): Forel, 1912j PDF: 66.Combination in Paratrechina (Nylanderia): Emery, 1925d PDF: 223.Combination in Paratrechina: Trager, 1984b PDF: 139.Combination in Nylanderia: Wheeler, 1935g: 50; LaPolla et al., 2010a PDF: 127.Subspecies of Nylanderia vividula: Dalla Torre, 1893 PDF: 180; Forel, 1912j PDF: 66; Wheeler & Mann, 1914 PDF: 44; Wheeler, 1919d: 305; Wheeler, 1922e PDF: 15; Wheeler, 1924b PDF: 111; Emery, 1925d PDF: 223; Borgmeier, 1927c PDF: 164; Wheeler, 1933a: 60; Wheeler, 1935g: 50; Creighton, 1950a PDF: 410; Smith, 1951c PDF: 849; Smith, 1979: 1444.Status as species: Emery, 1893k PDF: 637; Forel, 1893j PDF: 340; Forel, 1899b PDF: 126; Forel, 1902b PDF: 178; Wheeler, 1906i PDF: 342; Wheeler, 1907b PDF: 276; Wheeler, 1910a PDF: 569; Cole, 1937b PDF: 137; Smith, 1954c PDF: 14; Brown, 1957e PDF: 237; Kempf, 1972b PDF: 167; Trager, 1984b PDF: 139 (redescription); Deyrup et al., 1989 PDF: 100; Bolton, 1995b: 313; Deyrup et al., 2000: 301; Deyrup, 2003 PDF: 46; Branstetter & Sáenz, 2012 PDF: 256; Kallal & LaPolla, 2012 PDF: 7 (in key); Fernández & Ortiz-Sepúlveda, 2019 PDF: 737; Lubertazzi, 2019 10.3099/MCZ-43.1 PDF: 135; LaPolla & Kallal, 2019 10.11646/zootaxa.4658.3.1 PDF: 408 (in key).Senior synonym of Nylanderia vividula antillana: Kallal & LaPolla, 2012 PDF: 41 (in text).
