Pheidole pholeops

AntWiki: The Ants --- Online
Pheidole pholeops
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Formicidae
Subfamily: Myrmicinae
Tribe: Attini
Genus: Pheidole
Species: P. pholeops
Binomial name
Pheidole pholeops
Wilson, 2003

Cover and Tobin collected several colonies at the type locality (Cuzco Amazónico, Peru) in terra firme forest and forest transitional between terra firme and seasonally flooded forest, nesting in rotting sticks and logs on the forest floor and (in one case) in the soil. (Wilson 2003)

Identification

See the description in the nomenclature section.

Keys including this Species

Distribution

Known from the type locality; from the vicinity of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil; and from Yasuni National Park, Puerto Tipugini, Ecuador. (Wilson 2003)

Latitudinal Distribution Pattern

Latitudinal Range: -0.6258° to -12.497473°.

 
North
Temperate
North
Subtropical
Tropical South
Subtropical
South
Temperate

Distribution based on Regional Taxon Lists

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

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

Nomenclature

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

  • pholeops. Pheidole pholeops Wilson, 2003: 487, figs. (s.w.) PERU.

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

Description

DIAGNOSIS Similar to Pheidole asperithorax, Pheidole exigua, Pheidole flavens and Pheidole nuculiceps, differing as follows.

Major: a small depression in the posterior center of the vertex gives an illusion of a hole; posterior dorsal profile of head very feebly concave; promesonotum raised, with two pronotal and one angular mesonotal convexity in dorsal-oblique view; postpetiole diamond-shaped; faint antennal scrobes present; almost all of dorsal surface of head carinulate and foveolate; all of mesosoma foveolate, and anterior third of pronotum carinulate.

Minor: eye large and set forward on head; propodeal spines reduced to denticles; all of dorsal surface of head and mesosoma foveolate.

MEASUREMENTS (mm) Holotype major: HW 0.70, HL 0.76, SL 0.40, EL 0.12, PW 0.34. Paratype minor: HW 0.34, HL 0.36, SL 0.32, EL 0.08, PW 0.22.

COLOR Major: body light brownish yellow (“bronze”), appendages clear medium yellow.


Pheidole pholeops Wilson 2003.jpg

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

Type Material

PERU: Cuzco Amazónico, 15 km northeast of Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, col. Stefan Cover and John Tobin. Museum of Comparative Zoology

Etymology

Gr pholeops, like a hole, or cavity, referring to illusion of a small hole in vertex.

References

References based on Global Ant Biodiversity Informatics

  • Fernández, F. and S. Sendoya. 2004. Lista de las hormigas neotropicales. Biota Colombiana Volume 5, Number 1.
  • 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