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 moseni Wheeler
Pheidole moseni Wheeler
1925a: 21.
Types Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard; Roy. Mus. Stockholm.
Etymology Eponymous.
Diagnosis Similar in various ways to the species listed in the heading above, distinguished as follows.
Major: small; brownish yellow; frontal lobes project as rounded right angles forward and downward from head profile; eyes small, Eye Length much less than one-tenth Head Width; posterior half of head and all of pronotum smooth and shiny; rugoreticulum nowhere present on head; promesonotum drops through a steep posterior face to the metanotum; postpetiolar node from above 2X as wide as petiolar node, and spinose.
Minor: eyes very small, Eye Length much less than one-tenth Head Width; almost all of dorsal head surface, excluding occipital edge, frontal triangle, and midclypeus, carinulate; almost all of mesosoma smooth. Measurements (mm) Lectotype major: HW 0.86, HL 0.96, SL 0.20, EL 0.06, PW 0.50. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.44, HL 0.46, SL 0.38, EL 0.04, PW 0.28. color Major and minor: concolorous brownish yellow.
Range Known from the types, of uncertain provenance in Brazil, and from "Reserva Nova Lombardia," 4 km north of Santa Teresa, Espirito Santo, 900 m (W. L. Brown).
biology The Espirito Santo colony was collected in montane forest.
Figure Upper: lectotype, major. Lower: paralectotype, minor. BRAZIL: no further locality. Scale bars = 1 mm.