Pheidole mendicula Wheeler

Wilson, E. O., 2003, Pheidole in the New World. A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press : 637

Pheidole mendicula Wheeler

Pheidole (Hendecapheidole) mendicula Wheeler 1925e:172.

Types Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard.

ETYMOLOGY L mendicula , little and beggarly, or poor, presumably alluding to the small size and reduction of antennal segmentation.

Diagnosis A very small, reddish brown member of the tachigaliae group, which group is characterized by 11-segmented antennae, and distinguished within it as follows.

Major: occiput rugoreticulate, antennal scrobes, frontal triangle, and mid-clypeus smooth, and rest of dorsal head surface transversely carinulate; all of head and mesosoma foveolate and punctate; strong transverse ridge just breaks the surface of the pronotal profile in side view as a right-angle; posterior half of dorsal head profile in side view weakly concave; postpetiole from above trapezoidal. Minor: all of head and mesosoma foveolate and opaque; carinulae absent mesad to eye; propodeal spines backward projecting. Measurements (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.60, HL 0.66, SL 0.32, EL 0.08, PW 0.38. Syntype minor: HW 0.34, HL 0.34, SL 0.26, EL 0.06, PW 0.24.

Color Major and minor: body concolorous medium reddish brown, appendages a contrasting yellowish brown.

Range Besides Wheeler's type collection in Panama, Longino (1997) has recorded mendicula from both the Atlantic and Pacific lowlands of Costa Rica; and the species has been collected widely southward to Trinidad and Amazonian Brazil, Peru, and Ecuador.

Biology P. mendicula is an adaptable species. At La Selva, near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, Longino (1997) found a nest in the clay soil of a lawn surrounded by rainforest. Other sites include a second-growth forest and a rotten branch in a bamboo grove (Trinidad), and a rotten stick on the floor of terra firme rainforest (Brazil). On the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, Longino (1997) collected a worker from an extrafloral nectary of Passifolia pittieri. Winged queens have been found in nests from May to July.

Figure Upper: syntype, major. Lower: syntype, minor. PANAMA: Barro Coorado Island (William M. Wheeler). Scale bars = 1 mm.