Pheidole asperithorax Emery, 2003

Wilson, E. O., 2003, Pheidole in the New World. A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press : 374

Pheidole asperithorax Emery , new status

Pheidole minutula var. asperithorax Emery 1894d: 160. Pheidole flavens subsp. asperithorax Emery 1896g: 77.

types Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova.

etymology L asperithorax , rough thorax, presumably with reference to the liberal amount of sculpturing on the mesosoma.

diagnosis A member of the " flavens complex" within the larger flavens group, including asperithorax , breviscapa , exigua , flavens , nuculiceps , orbica , and sculptior , as well as the less similar nitidicollis and species placed close to it (see under nitidicollis ), and differing by the following combination of traits.

Major: humerus a prominent lobe that rises well above the rest of the promesonotum behind it in dorsal-oblique view; entire dorsal surface of the head, including occiput, all of clypeus, and frontal triangle, covered by parallel longitudinal carinulae; all of pronotal dorsum covered by transverse carinulae; most of dorsal head surface, the promesonotal dorsum, mesopleuron, propodeum, and sides of waist foveolate and opaque, with rest of body smooth and shiny; postpetiolar node from above forming a half-circle; propodeal spines short.

Minor: carinulae present on head anterior to level of eye; dorsum of postpetiolar node and all of gaster smooth and shiny, but all the rest of head and body foveolate and opaque.

Measurements (mm) Lectotype major: HW 0.94, HL 0.96, SL 0.52, EL 0.10, PW 0.50. Paralectotype minor: HW 0.48, HL 0.54, SL 0.44, EL 0.10, PW 0.32. color Major: concolorous medium reddish yellow. Minor: light reddish yellow.

Range In addition to the types, I have seen series from Mato Grosso, Brazil, and near Puerto Maldonado, Tambopata, in the Peruvian Amazon.

biology At Cuzco Amazonico, near Puerto Maldonado, Peru, Stefan Cover (unpublished collection notes) found three colonies of asperithorax in terra firme and seasonally flooded rainforest, nesting respectively in a rotten log, under the bark of an understory tree, and in a small rotten branch hanging in understory vegetation.

figure Upper: lectotype, major. Lower: paralectotype, minor. BOLIVIA: Salinas, Rio Beni. Scale bars = 1 mm.