Brown and Wilson (1959) summarize the genus as follows: "Widespread in tropics and warm temperate areas. Primarily forest-dwelling; some species occur in grassland and arid scrub. ... Nests mostly in soil and rotting wood; a few species live in arboreal plant cavities in tropical rain forest. Foraging hypogaeic to epigaeic-arboreal. Food: most species are collembolan feeders; a few are polyphagous predators or occasionally feed on sugary substances..."
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a kinetic mode of attack (Bolton 1999).
smithii occurs in wet forest habitats. In Costa Rica, it perhaps nests and forages in the low arboreal zone. The few collections are from that zone, and I have never observed it in Winkler samples.
Belize and El Salvador south to Santa Catarina, Brazil, and Amazonian Bolivia; St. Vincent Island, Grenada Island. In Costa Rica: Atlantic and southern Pacific lowlands.
Taxonomic history
Forel, 1893j PDF: 375 (q.m.).Senior synonym of Strumigenys smithii inaequalis: Brown, 1953f: 104.See also: Bolton, 2000: 539.
