Source and Additional Information

AntWeb
 
John T. Longino
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This species is found in mature lowland rainforest, where it is a resident of the high canopy. It is not common, but when workers are encountered they are conspicuous because of their large size and distinctive appearance. I most often encounter workers in treefalls.

I have seen one nest of this species. It was at Sirena in Corcovado National Park, in a 1-day old treefall. The tree was large, an Inga species with blood-red sap. Cephalotes workers were scattered thinly over the tree. Many workers were clustered around a nest entrance in a 30cm diameter branch, about half-way up the tree. I cut the branch open and collected the entire contents (alive) except for very small brood. This included minors, majors, a single dealate queen, an alate queen, and many males. The nest was a baseball-sized cavity in the center of a live branch. The entrance was through a rotten knot-hole. The entrance channel was plugged by a solid mass of ants, and the inside walls of the cavity were covered with a solid layer of ants. Water had collected in the bottom of the cavity, and it looked like there was much drowning brood in the bottom. I kept the colony alive for a while, in a plastic dish. The workers moved the brood into a petri dish covered with aluminum foil. They seemed to keep a lot of liquid around the brood.

The biology of alfaroi is probably similar to that of atratus, for which there are more published observations. See under atratus for additional natural history information.