Pheidole minima Mayr subspecies malelana, Wheeler, W. M., 1922

Wheeler, W. M., 1922, The ants collected by the American Museum Congo Expedition., Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 45, pp. 39-269 : 133

Pheidole minima Mayr subspecies malelana , new subspecies

Soldier.- Length 2.3 mm.

Head shaped much as in P. megacephala , without the mandibles a little longer than broad, distinctly but not broadly depressed in the occipital region. Eyes small, flat, at the anterior third of the head. Clypeus flat, ecarinate. Frontal area small, impressed; frontal carinae diverging, reaching to the posterior third of the head, bounding distinct scrobes for the antennal scapes, which are half as long as the head. Funicular joints 2 to 8 distinctly broader than long, club longer than the remainder of the funiculus. Mandibles large and convex, coarsely bidentate at the tip. Thorax robust, pronotum very convex, with small but distinct humeral tubercles. Mesonotum falling almost vertically to the pronounced mesoepinotal constriction, with a slight transverse convexity in the middle. Epinotum broader than long, concave and sloping in the middle, its spines rather erect, shorter than the interval between their bases, with pointed tips. Petiole with rather high, anteroposteriorly compressed, distinctly emarginate node. Postpetiole only ope and one-half times as broad as the petiole, broader than long, with the sides angularly produced. Gaster much smaller than the head, elliptical, convex, with subtruncate anterior border. Legs stout, femora thickened in the middle.

Shining; mandibles sparsely punctate; clypeus rather smooth in the middle, indistinctly rugulose on the sides; anterior two-thirds of head with sharp, but not coarse, longitudinal rugae; occipital lobes with small, sparse, piligerous punctures. Pronotum and gaster very smooth and shining; pedicel smooth but less polished; meso- and epinotum opaque, densely punctate.

Hairs yellow, sparse, suberect on the body, short and appressed on the legs and antennal scapes.

Castaneous; pronotum, first gastric segment, borders of clypeus, and mandibles blackish; remainder of mandibles and clypeus, cheeks and anterior portion of front, petiole and postpetiole yellowish red; legs brownish yellow; terminal gastric segments pale brown; posterior borders of all the gastric segments broadly yellowish.

Worker.- Length 1.5 mm.

Head subrectangular, as broad as long and as broad in front as behind, with very feebly convex sides and nearly straight posterior border. Eyes just in front of the middle. Mandibles with the entire apical border finely denticulate. Clypeus convex, with rounded, entire anterior border. Antennal scapes reaching beyond the posterior corners of the head to a distance equal to twice their diameter. Thorax shaped much as in the soldier, but the pronotum narrower and longer. Epinotal spines reduced to minute slender teeth scarcely longer than broad at their bases. Superior border of petiolar node straight and entire; postpetiole small, a little broader than the petiole, subglobular.

Pilosity, sculpture, and color as in the soldier, but the head smooth and shining, with only the cheeks delicately longitudinally rugulose.

Described from a single soldier and three workers taken by Lang from a colony nesting in a stem of Hyphaene at Malela.

This form agrees with the typical minima in size and in most of its characters but the color is very different, the postpetiole is much narrower in proportion to the petiole in both soldier and worker, and the antennal scapes of the latter are decidedly longer. Santschi has described a variety, catella, from Nigeria and the Gold Coast, which is evidently colored like malelana but his description is too brief to enable me to judge of its other characters. He has also described a subspecies, corticicola, from the French Congo. The soldier of this form measures 3 mm., the worker 2.3 mm. Both are red or yellow and in the soldier the frontal carinae extend to the posterior quarter of the head.