Pheidole tisiphone Wheeler

Wilson, E. O., 2003, Pheidole in the New World. A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press : 632

Pheidole tisiphone Wheeler

Pheidole tisiphone Wheeler 191 lk: 203. Combination inpheidole ( Elasmopheidole ) by Emery 1915g: 190.

types Nat. Mus. Nat. Hist. U. S.

etymology Tisiphone, Avenger of Murders, one of the Furies of Greek mythology.

Diagnosis A large member of the scrobifera group, with a bizarre major instantly recognizable by shield-shaped head in full-face view, with the frontal lobes expanded laterally to touch the lateral margins of the head at the level of the eyes and behind it and extended anteriorly almost to touch the anterior clypeal border; by the very dense, long hairs covering the entire head, with those around the region of the eye curving posteriorly; and by the deep, narrow antennal scrobes. The mesonotum is rugoreticulate in the Guatemalan specimen, and mostly carinulate in the unique holotype, but otherwise the two specimens are very close. measurements (mm) Holotype major: HW 1.80, HL 2.16, SL 0.76, EL 0.20, PW 1.00. color Major: body light reddish brown, appendages light reddish to yellowish brown.

range Known only from the two major workers noted above, from Oaxaca, Mexico, and Guatemala.

biology Unknown.

figure Major. GUATEMALA: San Jose (E. S. Ross, in Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard). Compared with unique holotype major, Almoloya, Oaxaca, Mexico, collected by Frederick Knab, in Nat. Mus. Nat. Hist U. S. Scale bar = 1 mm.