Pheidole vallifica

Wilson, E. O., 2003, Pheidole in the New World. A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press : 774

Pheidole vallifica Forel

Pheidole vallifica Forel 1901J: 357.

Types Mus. Hist. Nat. Geneve.

Etymology L vallifica , of a valley, allusion uncertain.

Diagnosis An unusual member of the tristis group, of uncertain affinity.

Major: frontal lobes in full-face view square, turned obliquely outward; from the side the lobes project as an acute angle, as does the clypeus beneath them; carinulae limited to head at eye level and anterior to it, and body is otherwise almost completely smooth and shiny; propodeal spines reduced to oblique angles; postpetiole conulate.

Minor: basal face of propodeum and dorsal surface of head from eyes forward carinulate, and rest of body almost completely smooth and shiny; propodeal spines reduced to right angles.

Measurements (mm) Syntype major: HW 1.12, HL 1.22, SL 0.60, EL 0.18, PW 0.60. Syntype minor: HW 0.60, HL 0.66, SL 0.58, EL 0.12, PW 0.42.

color Major (Palmar Sur, Costa Rica): light reddish brown, appendages yellowish brown. Minor: plain light brown, appendages brownish yellow.

range Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil (Mato Grosso), and Paraguay (Amambay).

Biology In 1896, Auguste Forel (1901j) found colonies of this "singuliere espece, une des plus curieuses du genre," at San Antonio, Colombia, in humid, sandy soil at the edge of a small stream. The small nests, which had few minors and only one or two majors, had small entrances abutted by semicircular piles of excavated soil. I found vallifica common in a banana plantation at Palmar Sur, at the base of Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula, where colonies nested in open soil.

Figure Upper: major (Palmar Sur, Puntarenas, Costa Rica), compared with syntype in Forel Collection. Lower: syntype, minor (San Antonio, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, over 1000 m). Scale bars = 1 mm.