Discothyrea are extremely small, cryptobiotic inhabitatants of forest leaf litter (see Genus Overview).
Discothyrea horni is the most common species in Costa Rica. It occurs in a wide variety of habitats: lowland wet or dry forest and montane cloud forest. It is more abundant in montane and cloud forest than in lowland forest. Workers and queens are relatively common in Berlese and Winkler samples of soil and litter. I have never found a nest.
Costa Rica (type locality). I have seen horni-like material from Colombia, Mexico (Chiapas and Veracruz), and Panama, but given the taxonomic uncertainty of species boundaries in Discothyrea, I am reluctant to make any statements about the range outside of Costa Rica. In Costa Rica this species occurs in wet to moist forests throughout the country, from near sea level to cloud forest at 1600m.
Taxonomic history
Menozzi, 1931b PDF: 261 (w.).See also: Sosa-Calvo & Longino, 2008 PDF: 226; Chaul, 2020 10.46357/bcnaturais.v15i1.266 PDF: 207.
