First record of the ant Rhopalothrix weberi (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae) for Mexico

Abstract

We present the first record of the presence of Rhopalothrix weberi Brown and Kempf in Mexico. A worker was obtained from a litter sample processed in a Winkler bag. The specimen was collected in a patch of cloud forest located in the mountainous region of central Veracruz (latitude 19°20 5N; longitude 97°0142W) at an altitude of 1300 m in the municipality of Ixhuacan de Los Reyes. This record increases the distribution of this species by over 1800 k to the north, constituting the most northerly record of this genus in continental America.