This species makes large external carton nests. I have observed four nests, three in Costa Rica and one in Panama, and all have been in Cecropia trees (C. peltata, C. obtusifolia, and C. longipes). Benson (1985) also observed A. schimperi in Cecropia trees. However Forel (1908b), describing the queen and male from a collection from Bahia, Brazil, explicitly stated that the carton nest was perched on the branches of a tree that was not Cecropia.
The three nests I have seen in Costa Rica were all at the edges of roads in highly human altered landscapes (pasture edges, coffee farms) in seasonally dry areas. The globular carton nests are very conspicuous on the highly visible branches of Cecropia trees, and in my studies of Cecropia in Costa Rica I always looked for them. Yet I have only seen these three over many years of work in Costa Rica. I have never been able to examine a nest closely, but I have been able to observe the base of the trees in which they occurred. In one case workers were foraging not only on the base of the tree but also on surrounding low vegetation. In another case, on a tree with stump sprouts at the base, workers were swarming over the sprouts but not actually entering the internodes. These observations contrast with typical Cecropia ants, which never forage off the host plant and usually enter and occupy any sprouts at the base of the tree. Thus A. schimperi seems to occupy Cecropia trees more "lightly" than the dominant obligate Cecropia ants.
Azteca schimperi could be a temporary social parasite of Cecropia ants, usurping an existing Azteca colony as a means of establishing its own. Such a scenario might explain the somewhat less specialized use of Cecropia by A. schimperi; it may be a specialist on Cecropia ants rather than Cecropia trees.
Mexico to Argentina. Costa Rica: widespread.
Taxonomic history
Forel, 1908 PDF: 387 (q.m.).Status as species: Forel, 1899b PDF: 110; Wheeler, 1907b PDF: 276; Forel, 1908 PDF: 387; Emery, 1913a PDF: 34; Crawley, 1916b PDF: 375; Wheeler & Bequaert, 1929 PDF: 33; Kempf, 1972b PDF: 34; Shattuck, 1994 PDF: 25; Bolton, 1995b: 79; Wild, 2007b PDF: 24; Longino, 2007 PDF: 58 (redescription); Guerrero et al., 2010 PDF: 53 (in key); Branstetter & Sáenz, 2012 PDF: 253; Guerrero, 2019 PDF: 706.Senior synonym of Azteca lanuginosa clariceps: Longino, 2007 PDF: 58.Senior synonym of Azteca fiebrigi: Longino, 2007 PDF: 58.Senior synonym of Azteca muelleri pallida: Longino, 2007 PDF: 59.
