Acromyrmex echinatior

Acromyrmex echinatior
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Attini
Genus:	Acromyrmex
Species:	A. echinatior
Binomial name
Acromyrmex echinatior Forel, 1899

Acromyrmex echinatior is a species of New World ants of the subfamily Myrmicinae of the genus Acromyrmex. It is found in the wild naturally from Mexico to Panama.^{[citation needed]}

In Costa Rica this species prefers open dry habitats such as urban areas around San Jose and seasonally dry habitats of Guanacaste Province. There is evidence to suggest that this species nests may occasionally be arboreal.^{[citation needed]}

Queens multiply mate, and colonies are facultatively polygynous. Nonreproductive workers of the colony 'police', that is, selectively destroy worker-laid eggs, but do not attack reproductive workers. Relatedness incentives are the most likely ultimate cause of the evolutionary maintenance of worker–egg policing in A. echinatior.^[1]

See also[]

• List of leafcutter ants

References[]

• "Species: Acromyrmex echinatior". AntWeb. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved March 5, 2011.
• Dorte Bekkevold, Jane Frydenberg & Jacobus J. Boomsma (1999). "Multiple mating and facultative polygyny in the Panamanian leafcutter ant Acromyrmex echinatior". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 46 (2): 103–109. doi:10.1007/s002650050598. JSTOR 4601648.
• T. R. Schultz, D. Bekkevold & J. J. Boomsma (1998). "Acromyrmex insinuator new species: an incipient social parasite of fungus-growing ants" (PDF). Insectes Sociaux. 45 (4): 457–471. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.569.6661. doi:10.1007/s000400050101. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-26.