Pheidole christopherseni

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Pheidole christopherseni
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Attini
Genus: Pheidole
Species: P. christopherseni
Binomial name
Pheidole christopherseni
Forel, 1912

Pheidole christopherseni casent0612252 p 1 high.jpg

Pheidole christopherseni casent0612252 d 1 high.jpg

Specimen Labels

In Costa Rica, christopherseni has been found in rainforest to 600 m, and in Colombia once in seasonal dry forest. This bizarre little species is strictly arboreal so far as is known. The type colony was nesting in a “very thin hollow stem” (Forel). Longino (1997). reports colonies from Costa Rica in the live, hollow stems of Bauhinia vines (a legume), as well as in a bignoniaceous liana, a small tree, and Cecropia saplings. (Wilson 2003)

Identification

See the description in the nomenclature section.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

In addition to the type locality (Panama), Longino (1997). has recorded christopherseni from the Atlantic lowlands of Costa Rica and the Tayrona National Park of Colombia. (Wilson 2003)

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: 18.5851° to -4.1°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

Neotropical Region: Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Panama (type locality).

Distribution based on AntMaps

AntMapLegend.png

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

Flight Period

X X X X X
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Source: Kaspari et al., 2001.

Castes

Worker

Minor

Images from AntWeb

Pheidole christopherseni casent0612251 h 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0612251 p 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0612251 d 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0612251 p 4 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0612251 l 1 high.jpg
Worker. Specimen code casent0612251. Photographer Jeremy Pilllow, uploaded by University of Utah. Owned by JTLC.
Pheidole christopherseni casent0908259 h 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0908259 p 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0908259 d 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0908259 l 1 high.jpg
Syntype of Pheidole christopherseniWorker. Specimen code casent0908259. Photographer Z. Lieberman, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.

Major

Images from AntWeb

Pheidole christopherseni casent0908258 h 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0908258 p 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0908258 d 1 high.jpgPheidole christopherseni casent0908258 l 1 high.jpg
Syntype of Pheidole christopherseniWorker (major/soldier). Specimen code casent0908258. Photographer Z. Lieberman, uploaded by California Academy of Sciences. Owned by MHNG, Geneva, Switzerland.
Pheidole christopherseni casent0612252 p 4 high.jpg
Worker (major/soldier). Specimen code casent0612252. Photographer Jeremy Pilllow, uploaded by University of Utah. Owned by JTLC.

Nomenclature

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

  • christopherseni. Pheidole christopherseni Forel, 1912f: 229 (s.w.) PANAMA. See also: Wilson, 2003: 400.

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): One of the most distinctive of all Pheidole species, marked by extremely small size, greatly elongated head of the major, and almost complete lack of carinulae anywhere on the bodies of major and minor, even around the antennal fossae and on the metapleural gland bulla. In some series at least, majors have faint longitudinal carinulae on the frontal lobes, and both castes have a few such traces on sides of the head anterior to the eyes.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.34, HL 0.40, SL 0.34, EL 0.06, PW 0.24. Minor not measured.

COLOR Major: concolorous medium yellow.

Minor: concolorous pale yellow.


Pheidole christopherseni Wilson 2003.jpg

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

Type Material

PANAMA. Musee d'Histoire Naturelle Genève - as reported in Wilson (2003)

Etymology

Eponymous. (Wilson 2003)

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • 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.
  • Longino J. T., J. Coddington, and R. K. Colwell. 2002. The ant fauna of a tropical rain forest: estimating species richness three different ways. Ecology 83: 689-702.
  • Longino J. et al. ADMAC project. Accessed on March 24th 2017 at https://sites.google.com/site/admacsite/