Labidus denticulatus

Quick Summary

• Difficulty: Expert
• Origin & Habitat: Known only from the Serra do Cachimbo region in Pará, Brazil (09°22'S,54°54'W,420m elevation) ^[2]. The habitat is in the Amazon basin region.
• Colony Type: Unknown, workers have never been collected or associated with this species ^[1].
• Size & Growth:
  • Queen: Unknown, no queens have been collected or described
  • Worker: Unknown, workers have never been collected or described
  • Colony: Unknown
  • Growth: Unknown
  • Development: Unknown (Workers have never been associated with this species, so no development data exists)
• Antkeeping:
  • Temperature: Unknown, no colonies have been kept to establish requirements
  • Humidity: Unknown, no colonies have been kept to establish requirements
  • Diapause: Unknown
  • Nesting: Unknown, workers have never been found to document nesting preferences
• Behavior: Completely unknown. As a Labidus species, it likely exhibits typical army ant behaviors such as nomadic foraging and colony migration, but this is speculative since no colonies have been observed ^[1].
• Common Issues: This species is currently unkeepable, workers have never been collected or associated with males, so no colony material exists in the antkeeping hobby., No captive colonies exist because the worker caste has never been described in scientific literature., Even if workers were found, identification would be difficult as they may be misidentified as Labidus coecus.

Why This Species Cannot Be Kept

Labidus denticulatus represents a unique challenge in antkeeping: it is a male-based species, meaning scientific taxonomy was established from male specimens alone. The workers have never been collected or associated with the males, making this species essentially unkeepable in the traditional sense ^[1]. Without workers, there is no colony to maintain, no queen to found a nest, and no basis for establishing captive husbandry protocols. This is not a case of difficult collection or rare occurrence, the worker caste of this species has simply never been documented in the scientific literature. Even if workers were eventually collected from the field, they may be currently misidentified as Labidus coecus, a closely related species ^[1]. This means there could already be Labidus workers in collections that belong to L. denticulatus but have been misidentified.

Taxonomic History

This species has undergone several reclassifications since its initial description. It was originally described in 1955 by Borgmeier as Labidus nero subsp. denticulatus based on male specimens collected in Pará, Brazil ^[2]. It was later considered a subspecies of Neivamyrmex mars before being elevated to species status in 2025 by DuVal et al. based on molecular data analysis ^[1]. The species is now recognized as sister to Labidus coecus in phylogenetic analysis ^[1]. The type specimens remain in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, with the holotype being a single male with disarticulated genitalia and a disarticulated left forewing ^[2].

The Labidus Genus

Labidus is a genus of army ants within the Dorylinae subfamily, found throughout the Neotropical region. Like other army ants, Labidus species are known for their nomadic lifestyle and raiding behavior, where columns of workers forage for prey to feed on brood. However, Labidus specifically is known for some unique characteristics, the genus includes species where the queens are permanently wingless (ergatoid), and some species have lost the worker caste entirely, existing only as social parasites in colonies of other army ant genera. The fact that L. denticulatus workers may be misidentified as L. coecus suggests similar morphology between these species, which is common in army ant genera where workers can be difficult to distinguish from each other without molecular analysis.

Frequently Asked Questions

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References