Answer to the Monday Night Mystery

What was that bug-eyed Ecuadorian ant?

It was a Camponotus (Dendromyrmex) weaver ant.

Unlike the well-studied African and Asian Oecophylla, Dendromyrmex are a much less known lineage of weaver ants. Like all weaver ants, they glue living leaves together with larval silk to form nests.

So. Five points for Gordon Snelling, who guessed it was Camponotus. Five more to Ant Dame for correctly picking the subgenus. And a point each for JasonC and Flavia.