Pheidole cramptoni

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Pheidole cramptoni
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Attini
Genus: Pheidole
Species: P. cramptoni
Binomial name
Pheidole cramptoni
Wheeler, W.M., 1916

Pheidole cramptoni inb0003613109 p 1 high.jpg

Pheidole cramptoni inb0003613109 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

Synonyms

Longino (1997) found two colonies in primary rainforest on the Costa Rican Atlantic slope, one nesting in a rotting cavity ofa live branch, the other in a dead stick. Douglas Yu (specimen data) discovered a colony in Peru in cavities of the myrmecophyte Cordia nodosa. Colonies have been found in rainforest nesting in dead sticks and in the cavities of live myrmecophytes of the genera Cordia and Piper. Winged reproductives have been collected in nests in different localities from April to November. (Wilson 2003)

Identification

See the description in the nomenclature section.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Recorded from Costa Rica; Trinidad and Tobago; Guyana (type locality); Mato Grosso, Brazil; and Amazonian Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. (Wilson 2003)

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 17.191° to -14.79861111°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana (type locality), Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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Distribution based on AntWeb specimens

Check data from AntWeb

Countries Occupied

Number of countries occupied by this species based on AntWiki Regional Taxon Lists. In general, fewer countries occupied indicates a narrower range, while more countries indicates a more widespread species.
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Estimated Abundance

Relative abundance based on number of AntMaps records per species (this species within the purple bar). Fewer records (to the left) indicates a less abundant/encountered species while more records (to the right) indicates more abundant/encountered species.
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Biology

Castes

Worker

Minor

Images from AntWeb

Pheidole cramptoni casent0282957 h 1 high.jpgPheidole cramptoni casent0282957 h 2 high.jpgPheidole cramptoni casent0282957 p 1 high.jpgPheidole cramptoni casent0282957 d 1 high.jpgPheidole cramptoni casent0282957 l 1 high.jpg
Not ProvidedWorker. Specimen code casent0282957. Photographer Adam Lazarus, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by EPEC.
Pheidole cramptoni inb0003613114 h 1 high.jpgPheidole cramptoni inb0003613114 p 1 high.jpgPheidole cramptoni inb0003613114 d 1 high.jpgPheidole cramptoni inb0003613114 l 1 high.jpg
Worker. Specimen code inb0003613114. Photographer Jeremy Pilllow, uploaded by University of Utah. Owned by INBio.

Major

Pheidole cramptoni inb0003613109 p 4 high.jpg
.

Biology

Lenko & Brown found this species twice near Manaus, in the heart of Amazoniam Brazil, during 1962. The first collection (M-101) was a large colony or group of colonies found under the bark of a large, punky "white-rotten" log in rain forest at km 40 on the road from Manaus to Itacoatiara, NE of Manaus (27. VIII_1962), The second colony with winged queens was taken in the base of a rotten branch of a tree about 2 m above the ground in second growth forest bordering a plantation of "Brazil" nut or "castanha do Para", at Aleixo, 14 km SE Manaus, on 11.IX. 1961. In Guyana, as indicated by Wheeler, this species has been found nesting in hollow petioles of Tachigalia. (Kempf and Brown 1968).

Nomenclature

The following information is derived from Barry Bolton's Online Catalogue of the Ants of the World.

  • cramptoni. Pheidole cramptoni Wheeler, W.M. 1916c: 4 (s.w.) GUYANA. Senior synonym of petiolicola: Kempf & Brown, 1968: 97. See also: Wilson, 2003: 677.
  • petiolicola. Pheidole cramptoni subsp. petiolicola Wheeler, W.M. 1921f: 147 (s.w.) GUYANA. Junior synonym of cramptoni: Kempf & Brown, 1968: 97.

Unless otherwise noted the text for the remainder of this section is reported from the publication that includes the original description.

Description

From Wilson (2003): DIAGNOSIS Similar to Pheidole hasticeps, Pheidole subarmata, and especially Pheidole synarmata.

Major: in side view frontal lobes project forward as equilateral triangles; humeri angulate, seen from above projecting slightly beyond the rest of the pronotum below it; propodeal spiracle very large, its diameter greater than the base of the propodeal spine in side view; postpetiole oval from above; head bicolored (see Color below); all of frontal lobes and space between frontal carinae filled with carinulae, which reach halfway from the level of the eyes to the level of the occiput.

Minor: propodeal spiracle large, about as wide as the base of the propodeal spine; humerus in dorsal-oblique view angulate; postpetiolar node from side well developed.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.96, HL 1.20, SL 0.46, EL 0.10, PW 0.52. Syntype minor: HW 0.52, HL 0.58, SL 0.52, EL 0.08, PW 0.32.

COLOR Major: anterior half of dorsum of head yellow, contrasting with yellowish brown posterior half, also with yellowish brown mid-clypeus, frontal triangle, and antennal fossae; body yellowish brown.

Minor: concolorous yellowish brown.


Pheidole cramptoni Wilson 2003.jpg

Figure. Upper: syntype, major. Lower: syntype, minor. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Type Material

GUYANA: Kartabo, col. W. M. Wheeler. Museum of Comparative Zoology - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Etymology

Eponymous. (Wilson 2003)

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Alonso L., M. Kaspari, and A. Alonso. 2001. Assessment of the Ants of the Lower Urubamba Region, Peru. Pp 87-93. In: Alsonso A, Dallmeier F, Campbell P, editors. Urubamba: The biodiversity of a Peruvian rainforest. SI/MAB Biodiversity Program-Smithsonian Institution. 204 p.
  • Branstetter M. G. and L. Sáenz. 2012. Las hormigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) de Guatemala. Pp. 221-268 in: Cano E. B. and J. C. Schuster. (eds.) 2012. Biodiversidad de Guatemala. Volumen 2. Guatemala: Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, iv + 328 pp
  • Dattilo W. et al. 2019. MEXICO ANTS: incidence and abundance along the Nearctic-Neotropical interface. Ecology https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2944
  • Fernández, F. and S. Sendoya. 2004. Lista de las hormigas neotropicales. Biota Colombiana Volume 5, Number 1.
  • Franco W., N. Ladino, J. H. C. Delabie, A. Dejean, J. Orivel, M. Fichaux, S. Groc, M. Leponce, and R. M. Feitosa. 2019. First checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of French Guiana. Zootaxa 4674(5): 509-543.
  • Groc S., J. H. C. Delabie, F. Fernandez, F. Petitclerc, B. Corbara, M. Leponce, R. Cereghino, and A. Dejean. 2017. Litter-dwelling ants as bioindicators to gauge the sustainability of small arboreal monocultures embedded in the Amazonian rainforest. Ecological Indicators 82: 43-49.
  • Kempf W. W. 1961. A survey of the ants of the soil fauna in Surinam (Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Studia Entomologica 4: 481-524.
  • Kempf W. W., and W. L. Jr. Brown. 1968. Report on some Neotropical ant studies. Papeis Avulsos de Zoologia (São Paulo) 22: 89-102.
  • Kempf, W.W. 1972. Catalago abreviado das formigas da regiao Neotropical (Hym. Formicidae) Studia Entomologica 15(1-4).
  • Kusnezov N. 1952. El género Pheidole en la Argentina (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Acta Zoologica Lilloana 12: 5-88.
  • Lapolla, J. S., and S. P. Cover. "New species of Pheidole (Hymenoptera : Formicidae) from Guyana, with a list of species known from the country." Transactions of the American Entomological Society 131, no. 3-4 (2005): 365-374.
  • Longino J. T. L., and M. G. Branstetter. 2018. The truncated bell: an enigmatic but pervasive elevational diversity pattern in Middle American ants. Ecography 41: 1-12.
  • Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/
  • Mertl A. L., J. F. A. Traniello, K. Ryder Wilkie, and R. Constantino. 2012. Associations of two ecologically significant social insect taxa in the litter of an amazonian rainforest: is there a relationship between ant and termite species richness? Psyche doi:10.1155/2012/312054
  • Wheeler W. M. 1916. Ants collected in British Guiana by the expedition of the American Museum of Natural History during 1911. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 35: 1-14.
  • Wheeler W. M. 1921. The Tachigalia ants. Zoologica (New York) 3: 137-168.
  • Wheeler W. M. 1942. Studies of Neotropical ant-plants and their ants. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 90: 1-262.