Brief Summary
provided by Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
About 115 species are known for this New World genus, but only 23 are found north of Mexico. Most species are found in the southwestern states with a few ranging east to the Atlantic coast and as far north as Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. The species are hypogaeic and are found in the soil under objects, though some have been reported from rotten logs and stumps. Some may carry on their foraging and emigrating activities during daylight, but most are apparently nocturnal in their activities. Most colonies have one functional queen, and new colonies are produced by fission. The cyclic pattern of nomadic and statary phases is similar to the tropical species, but in most Nearctic species the activity stops in the autumn and resumes again in the spring. Because many of the species listed below were described from a single caste, future study and caste association may reveal that fewer species actually exist.
- bibliographic citation
- Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. 1979. Prepared cooperatively by specialists on the various groups of Hymenoptera under the direction of Karl V. Krombein and Paul D. Hurd, Jr., Smithsonian Institution, and David R. Smith and B. D. Burks, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Insect Identification and Beneficial Insect Introduction Institute. Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture.
