Pheidole in the New World. A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus.
Author
Wilson, E. O.
text
2003
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, MA
http://atbi.biosci.ohio-state.edu/HymOnline/reference-full.html?id=20017
book
20017
Pheidole cavifrons Emery
Pheidole cavifrons Emery
1906c: 144. Syn.:
Pheidole arciruga
Forel 1908h: 381,
n. syn.
Types Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova.
Etymology l
cavifrons
, hollow front, evidently referring to the deep antennal scrobes.
Diagnosis Closest to
longior
, somewhat less similar to
aberrans
and
obnixa
, distinguished as follows.
Major: head markedly elongate (Head Length/Head Width 1.39); concolorous yellow; hypostoma toothless; dorsal posterior half of head flat; frontal lobes in full-face view with lobose anterior margins; carinulae originating on frontal lobes end far short of midpoint between eyes and occiput; mesonotal convexity in side view reduced; propodeal spines strongly developed; promesonotum smooth and shiny.
Minor: pronotal dorsum covered by semicircular carinulae.
Measurements (mm) Lectotype major: HW 0.76, HL 1.06, SL 0.34, EL 0.06, PW 0.54. Minor: HW 0.46, HL 0.52, SL 0.34, EL 0.04, PW 0.32. color Major: concolorous medium yellow. Minor: concolorous pale yellow.
Range Recorded from Buenos Aires, Argentina; Uruguay; and Rio Grande do Sul and Parana, Brazil. biology The type colony of synonymous "
arciruga
" was collected from a termite mound in Rio Grande do Sul.
figure Upper: lectotype, major (La Sierra, Uruguay). Lower: minor ("
arciruga
" syntype, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, compared with
cavifrons
paralectotype). Scale bars = 1 mm.