Brown and Wilson (1959) summarize the genus as follows: "Widespread in tropics and warm temperate areas. Primarily forest-dwelling; some species occur in grassland and arid scrub. ... Nests mostly in soil and rotting wood; a few species live in arboreal plant cavities in tropical rain forest. Foraging hypogaeic to epigaeic-arboreal. Food: most species are collembolan feeders; a few are polyphagous predators or occasionally feed on sugary substances..."
Members of the genus are all predaceous, with a kinetic mode of attack (Bolton 1999).
longispinosa occurs in lowland wet forest. Workers forage in leaf litter on the forest floor. Weber (1952) observed the nest of the type collection, from Barro Colorado Island, Panama. The nest was in rainforest soil, below the soil cover, and surmounted by a small crater.
Costa Rica, Panama (type locality), Ecuador. In Costa Rica: southern Pacific lowlands.
Taxonomic history
[Strumigenys longispinosa Weber, 1952b PDF: 3; unavailable name, attributed to Brown.].See also: Bolton, 2000: 542.
