Octostruma wheeleri (Mann 1922)

Octostruma wheeleri occurs in lowland rainforest, seasonal moist forest, and occasionally in cloud forest habitats. It occurs from sea level to 1100 m elevation, with greatest abundance below 600 m (up to 16% of 1 m2 plot litter samples in quantitative sampling). It is only known from Winkler and Berlese samples of sifted leaf litter.

Mexico (Chiapas), Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama.

Face lacking a sharp arcuate carina and differentiated anterior portion; antennal scrobe deep and sharply demarcated with a carinate rim; first and second basalmost teeth of mandible similar in shape, acute; transverse carina between propodeal spines thin and fading medially; labrum apex blunt, not distinctly bilobed; sides of labrum straight and evenly converging; CI > 100; face with at most six spatulate setae; promesonotum never with spatulate setae; face and dorsal pronotum matte but mostly smooth, not rugulose.

A cryptic inhabitant of forest floor leaf litter and rotten wood; in Central American lowlands.

Rhopalothrix (Octostruma) wheeleri Mann, 1922 PDF: 43 (w.) GUATEMALA. Neotropic. AntCat AntWiki HOL

Taxonomic history

Longino, 2013b PDF: 56 (q.).Combination in Octostruma: Brown, 1949f PDF: 92.Status as species: Brown, 1949h PDF: 92; Brown & Kempf, 1960 PDF: 191 (redescription); Kempf, 1972b PDF: 169; Bolton, 1995b: 294; Branstetter & Sáenz, 2012 PDF: 258; Longino, 2013b PDF: 55 (redescription); Fernández & Serna, 2019 PDF: 868.