Adelomyrmex tristani

Description

Adelomyrmex tristani is an ant species first described by Menozzi in 1931. Adelomyrmex tristani is part of the genus Adelomyrmex and the family ants. No subspecies are listed in the Catalog of Life. "Adelomyrmex is a genus of ants in the subfamily Myrmicinae. Species of Adelomyrmex are small, litter-inhabiting ants most often collected in Berlese and Winkler samples. Although the genus and its relatives have a pantropical distribution, Central American cloud forests are the only places where they are abundant and diverse. The center of Adelomyrmex abundance and diversity is Central America, and a few far-flung species occur in New Guinea, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia, and Isla del Coco. Several Adelomyrmex species are mountain-top endemics with very restricted ranges, and climate change clearly poses the threat of mountain-top extinction. The geographic range of the genus in the New World is the mainland from northern Mexico to Amazonian Brazil; the Galápagos, where the mainland species A. myops is probably recently introduced; and Isla del Coco, a small oceanic island north of the Galápagos, with a highly distinctive endemic species. The genus is unknown from the Caribbean islands. The center of abundance and diversity is the Central American highlands south to western Panama. Elsewhere in the range the genus is always very rare with low local diversity. In Central America, Adelomyrmex occur primarily in mature wet forest habitats, in rotten wood and leaf litter on the forest floor. They are far more abundant in montane cloud forest than in lowland rainforest. In some cloud forest habitats they can occur in nearly 100% of miniWinkler samples (1 m2 samples of sifted litter) and dozens of individuals may occur in samples. In lowland rainforest they are rare, occurring in fewer than 10% of miniWinklers, and usually as one or two individuals per sample. Highland species are typically larger as well. Thus in some cloud forests Adelomyrmex make up a large proportion of the ant biomass (often sharing that role with another dominant cloud forest myrmicine genus, Stenamma). In contrast, in lowland habitats they are very rare and a minute proportion of the biomass. In South America they are always rare, whether in lowlands or cloud forest."