1955] 
Wilson — Belonopelta deletHx 
83 
struma, Rogeria, Strumigenys, Paratrechina ( Nylanderia ) , 
Octostruma, and Odontomachus, approximately in that 
order. Apterostigma, Apsychomyrmex, and Glamyromyr- 
mex are among the less common but zoogeographically 
distinctive ground elements. W asmannia, Azteca, Pseudo- 
myrmex, and Paracryptocerus predominate in the arbore- 
al fauna. 
B. deletrix was found on two occasions during ten days’ 
collecting in this forest. First, a single worker was dis- 
covered in a rotting, but still firm, section of tree branch, 
two inches in diameter, buried in deep leaf litter between 
the buttresses of a large tree. It was in a flat, rectangular, 
preformed cavity which opened to the soil below by a broad 
gallery. Six eggs, six larvae, and three worker cocoons 
were also present, but conscientious search in the im- 
mediate vicinity failed to reveal other adults. Later, a 
complete colony, undoubtedly independent of the first, was 
discovered nesting several hundred yards away in a rot- 
ting branch, of the same dimensions as the first and also 
buried in leaf litter between the buttresses of a large tree. 
This colony consisted of ten workers, a dealate queen, ten 
eggs, twenty larvae of various sizes, and eight cocoons. 
It occupied a small cavity the diameter of a pencil and 
six inches long in the center of the branch. 
A third collection of the species was made to the east 
of Pueblo Nuevo in what might best be described as 
“tropical evergreen” forest (see Leopold, 1950). The soil 
was drier and rockier than in the rainforest, and the trees 
formed a single, often-broken canopy with few lianas and 
epiphytes. The ant fauna in general appeared to be little 
more than a depauperate extension of the rainforest fauna. 
A colony fragment of Belonopelta deletrix, consisting of 
three workers, four eggs, and several larvae, occupied a 
pencil-width cavity in a very rotten, crumbling tree branch 
three to four inches in diameter lying on the ground and 
partly covered by rather dry leaf litter. The surface soil 
and leaf litter in the immediate vicinity were collected in 
bags, sorted through manually, and then processed in 
Berlese funnels, but no more - adults or brood could be 
found. 
