Source and Additional Information

AntWeb
 
John T. Longino
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Strumigenys margaritae Forel 1893:378. Syntype worker, queen, male: Antilles Islands, St. Vincent Island, Palmyra Estate, 1000ft, 3.xi.; Golden Grove Estate, 500ft, ix.; Hermitage Estate, Cumberland Valley, 1000ft, 2.xii (all coll. H. H. Smith) [BMNH, AMNH, MCZ, NMV].

Later moved to Smithistruma, then Pyramica. See Bolton (2000) for complete synonymy.

Natural History:

Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a static pressure mode of attack (Bolton 1999).

This species occurs in open disturbed habitats. Workers can be found foraging on low vegetation, and I have observed them visiting extrafloral nectaries.

I rarely encounter this species because I tend to concentrate my collecting in forested habitats. I have never obtained it by sifting litter. In a study of ant visitors to extrafloral nectaries of Passiflora pittieri at Sirena, Corcovado National Park, I observed many species of ants on thousands of shoots on hundreds of plants. Among these observations, I observed margaritae only twice, both times on shoots of one plant. In another study, collecting ants in scrubby roadside vegetation along the road to Monteverde (120m, La Pita), I found specimens of margaritae in sweep net samples. Finally, I found a worker while collecting in a city park in the middle of San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica.