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|Forel, 1908c PDF: 37 (q.m.); Wheeler & Wheeler, 1952c PDF: 624 (l.); Wheeler & Wheeler, 1976a PDF: 53 (l.).|
|Combination in Euponera (Mesoponera): Emery, 1901b PDF: 46; in Mesoponera: Kempf, 1972b PDF: 141; in Pachycondyla: Brown, in Bolton, 1995b: 304; in Mayaponera: Schmidt & Shattuck, 2014 PDF: 143.|
Southern Mexico to northern Argentina. Costa Rica: lowland wet forest, sea level to at least 150m; common at La Selva, Corcovado.
This species is a common inhabitant of mature rainforests. It usually nests in dead wood on the forest floor, although I once observed a nest in the debris of a small "basket" palm (short understory palms that accumulate a basket of leaf litter where the whorl of petioles emerges from the trunk, often about 50cm above the ground). I find P. constricta in a large proportion of sifted litter samples (Winkler samples) from rainforest sites. Nocturnal foragers are relatively common on and among the leaf litter; diurnal foragers are less common. One nest I collected, in a rotten stick on the forest floor, contained 4 ergatogynes, in which there were no wing scars, but the mesosoma was more robust than normal workers, and the propodeal suture not impressed. I also get these ergatogynes occasionally in Winkler samples. I once observed an alate queen while collecting at night.
Mayr, G. 1884. In Radoszkowsky, O. Fourmis de Cayenne Francaise. Trudy Russkago Entomologicheskago Obshchestva 18:30-39.