Pheidole cataractae

Pheidole cataractae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Formicidae
Subfamily:	Myrmicinae
Tribe:	Attini
Genus:	Pheidole
Species:	P. cataractae
Binomial name
	Pheidole cataractae; Wheeler, W.M., 1916 Specimen Labels

Nests in pieces of rotting dead wood on the floor of rainforest. A media (minor-major intercaste) was found in the Peruvian series. Having studied a colony I collected north of Manaus and maintained in the laboratory, I agree with the following assessment by Stefan Cover (personal communication), based on his experiences at Cuzco Amazónico: “P. cataractae belongs to a small guild of rainforest Pheidole characterized by agile, fast-moving workers and soldiers [majors] with relatively long appendages; it nests in ephemeral sites on the forest floor and finds food sources rapidly, but retreats if competition shows up.” The adaptation represents a behavioral (and in long appendages, anatomical) convergence to many species of the formicine genus Paratrechina. (Wilson 2003)

Identification

See the description in the nomenclature section.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Known from one locality each in Guyana, north of Manaus in Brazil, and Cuzco Amazónico, near Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru. (Wilson 2003)

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 5.665549° to -14.79861111°.


North Temperate	North Subtropical	Tropical	South Subtropical	South Temperate

Source: AntMaps

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Brazil, Guyana (type locality), Peru.

Distribution based on AntMaps

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.

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.

Biology

Castes

Worker

Minor

Images from AntWeb


Worker. Specimen code usnment00691422. Photographer M. Pierce, uploaded by University of Utah.	Owned by USNM.

Nomenclature

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

cataractae. Pheidole cataractae Wheeler, W.M. 1916c: 6 (s.w.) GUYANA. See also: Wilson, 2003: 178.

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): A brown, unusually small and slender member of the diligens group.

Major: body mostly smooth and shiny, with portions of mesosoma and propodeum foveolate, and with widely spaced longitudinal carinulae over part of dorsal head surface, their interspaces foveolate or smooth and shiny.

Minor: very slender; propodeal spines reduced to denticles. A media, possibly a developmental anomaly, was found in a series from Cuzco Amazónico, in Amazonian Peru. Close to Pheidole calimana, distinguished from that species by its well-developed propodeal spines and shorter cephalic carinulae in the major and smooth, shiny head in the minor.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Lectotype major: HW 0.94, HL 0.94, SL 0.76, EL 0.14, PW 0.44. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.42, HL 0.50, SL 0.64, EL 0.10, PW 0.28.

COLOR Major: body medium brown, with mandibles and anterior quarter of head capsule dark yellowish brown; antennae and legs medium yellowish brown.

Minor: body concolorous light brown, appendages a lighter shade of yellowish brown.

Figure. Upper: lectotype, major. Lower: paralectotype, minor, on top; and head, mesosoma, and waist, a minor from Fazenda Dimona, 90 km north of Manaus, Brazil, col. E. O. Wilson. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Type Material

Kaieteur, Guyana. Museum of Comparative Zoology - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Etymology

Gr cataract, waterfall, alluding to the Kaieteur Fall, at the type locality. (Wilson 2003)

References

Wilson, E. O. 2003. Pheidole in the New World: A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. (page 178, fig. major, minor described)
Albuquerque, E., Prado, L., Andrade-Silva, J., Siqueira, E., Sampaio, K., Alves, D., Brandão, C., Andrade, P., Feitosa, R., Koch, E., Delabie, J., Fernandes, I., Baccaro, F., Souza, J., Almeida, R., Silva, R. 2021. Ants of the State of Pará, Brazil: a historical and comprehensive dataset of a key biodiversity hotspot in the Amazon Basin. Zootaxa 5001, 1–83 (doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5001.1.1).
Franco, W., Ladino, N., Delabie, J.H.C., Dejean, A., Orivel, J., Fichaux, M., Groc, S., Leponce, M., Feitosa, R.M. 2019. First checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of French Guiana. Zootaxa 4674, 509–543 (doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4674.5.2).
Wheeler, W. M. 1916c. Ants collected in British Guiana by the expedition of the American Museum of Natural History during 1911. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 35: 1-14 (page 6, soldier, worker described)

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

Bezdeckova K., P. Bedecka, and I. Machar. 2015. A checklist of the ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) of Peru. Zootaxa 4020 (1): 101–133.
Delabie J. H. C., and I. C. do Nascimento. 1998. As Formigas do municipio de Ilhéus (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Formicidae). Especiaria 1(2): 133-152.
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.
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.