''Ectatomma ruidum'' is a

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In biogeogra ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Ectatomminae Ectatomminae is a subfamily of ants in the poneromorph subfamilies group containing four extant and three extinct genera in two tribes. The subfamily was described in 2003 when Barry Bolton divided the Ponerinae Ponerinae, the ponerine a ...

Habitat and distribution

The species is found from southern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, from sea level to an altitude of 1500–1600 m, and is dominant in several ecosystems such as forests, or economically important cultivated areas. It is diurnal, earth-dwelling and nests in the soil. A study by Vásquez-Ordóñez ''et al.'' (2012) showed that a lower density of ''E. ruidum'' nests was found in the woodlands compared to the grasslands. These observations are consistent with those for the departments of Valle del Cauca and Cauca, but not for

La Guajira La Guajira () is a departments of Colombia, department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The ca ...

, a drier region in the extreme north of Colombia, where a high abundance of ''E. ruidum'' nests was found in areas with higher presence of trees.

Parasitism

Two species of ''

Kapala A kapala (Sanskrit for "skull") is a skull cup used as a ritual implement (bowl) in both Buddhism Tantra and Tibetan Buddhist Tantra (Vajrayana). Especially in Tibetan Buddhism, kapalas are often carved or elaborately mounted with precious met ...

'' (

Eucharitidae The Eucharitidae are a family of parasitic wasps. Eucharitid wasps are members of the superfamily Chalcidoidea and consist of four subfamilies: Akapalinae, Eucharitinae, Gollumiellinae, and Oraseminae. Most of the 42 genera and >400 species o ...

) have been reported to

parasitize Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The ento ...

this ant in Mexico, and parasitism of ''E. ruidum'' by ''Kapala'' sp. is also known from

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Kleptoparasitism

''Ectatomma ruidum'' is reported to engage heavily in

kleptoparasitism Kleptoparasitism (originally spelt clepto-parasitism, meaning "parasitism by theft") is a form of feeding in which one animal deliberately takes food from another. The strategy is evolutionarily stable when stealing is less costly than direct f ...

(thievery) of food from neighbouring nests. To achieve this, specialised workers mimic the cuticular hydrocarbon profile of the target nest.

References

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External links

* Ectatomminae Hymenoptera of North America Hymenoptera of South America Insects of Central America Insects of Mexico Insects described in 1860 {{ant-stub