Pheidole cramptoni Wheeler

Wilson, E. O., 2003, Pheidole in the New World. A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press : 677

Pheidole cramptoni Wheeler

Pheidole cramptoni Wheeler 1916c: 4. Syn.: Pheidole cramptoni subsp. petiolicola Wheeler 192 If: 147, synonymy by Kempf and Brown 1968: 97.

Types Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard.

Etymology Eponymous.

diagnosis Similar to hasticeps , subarmata , and especially synarmata .

Major: in side view frontal lobes project forward as equilateral triangles; humeri angulate, seen from above projecting slightly beyond the rest of the pronotum below it; propodeal spiracle very large, its diameter greater than the base of the propodeal spine in side view; postpetiole oval from above; head bicolored (see Color below); all of frontal lobes and space between frontal carinae filled with carinulae, which reach halfway from the level of the eyes to the level of the occiput.

Minor: propodeal spiracle large, about as wide as the base of the propodeal spine; humerus in dorsal-oblique view angulate; postpetiolar node from side well developed.

measurements (mm) Syntype major: HW 0.96, HL 1.20, SL 0.46, EL 0.10, PW 0.52. Syntype minor: HW 0.52, HL 0.58, SL 0.52, EL 0.08, PW 0.32.

color Major: anterior half of dorsum of head yellow, contrasting with yellowish brown posterior half, also with yellowish brown mid-clypeus, frontal triangle, and antennal fossae; body yellowish brown. Minor: concolorous yellowish brown.

Range Recorded from Costa Rica; Trinidad; Guyana (type locality); Mato Grosso, Brazil; and Amazonian Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru.

biology Longino (1997) found two colonies in primary rainforest on the Costa Rican Atlantic slope, one nesting in a rotting cavity of a live branch, the other in a dead stick. Douglas Yu (specimen data) discovered a colony in Peru in cavities of the myrmecophyte Cordia nodosa. Colonies have been found in rainforest nesting in dead sticks and in the cavities of live myrmecophytes of the genera Cordia and Piper. Winged reproductives have been collected in nests in different localities from April to November.

Figure Upper: syntype, major. Lower: syntype, minor. GUYANA: Kartabo (W. M. Wheeler). Scale bars = 1 mm.