This species is commonly encountered as workers in recent treefalls or canopy fogging samples from mature rainforest. It can nest in either live or dead branches. I have the following nest collections:
Whole branch sample from canopy of Vochysia ferruginea. A nest occurred in a 1-5cm diameter dead stick, in a 50cm long chamber.
Pasture edge/primary forest. Nest in two internodes of Cecropia insignis sapling.
A 2m section of bare, dead branch had recently fallen from the canopy. I found various ant nests in different parts of the branch, including a C. basalis nest.
Recent treefall; C. basalis workers abundant; an extensive colony occupied the live stems of a bignoniaceous vine tangle; there were many large round entrance holes.
Carapa guianensis felled one day previously; tree was somewhat isolated in low second growth vegetation; C. basalis was nesting in a cavity in a 5cm diameter live branch of the Carapa tree.
Mexico to Panama, Colombia?, Ecuador. Costa Rica: lowland wet and moist forest sites throughout the country.
Taxonomic history
[Note: type-locality Nicaragua (Chontales), after De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999 PDF: 269.].De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999 PDF: 273 (m.).Combination in Paracryptocerus: Kempf, 1951 PDF: 232.Combination in Zacryptocerus: Hespenheide, 1986: 395.Combination in Cephalotes: De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999 PDF: 269.Status as species: Dalla Torre, 1893 PDF: 141; Forel, 1899b PDF: 49; Emery, 1924f PDF: 309; Kempf, 1951 PDF: 232; Kempf, 1972b PDF: 175; Brandão, 1991 PDF: 384; Bolton, 1995b: 424; De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999 PDF: 269 (redescription); Branstetter & Sáenz, 2012 PDF: 257; Sandoval-Gómez & Sánchez-Restrepo, 2019 PDF: 910.Senior synonym of Cephalotes multispinus: De Andrade & Baroni Urbani, 1999 PDF: 269.
Cephalotes basalis is a species of arboreal ant of the genus Cephalotes, characterized by an odd shaped head and the ability to "parachute" by steering their fall if they drop off of the tree they're on. Giving their name also as gliding ants.[1][2]
Cephalotes basalis is a species of arboreal ant of the genus Cephalotes, characterized by an odd shaped head and the ability to "parachute" by steering their fall if they drop off of the tree they're on. Giving their name also as gliding ants.
