Pheidole megacephala, Fabr

Forel, A., 1893, Formicides de l'Antille St. Vincent. Récoltées par Mons. H. H. Smith., Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 1893, pp. 333-418 : 417-418

9. Pheidole megacephala, Fabr .

[[ worker ]] [[ soldier ]] et [[ queen ]]. (No. 49 a a 49 d). Cosmopolite dans les tropiques,

(49). Apparently a rare species.

(49 a). Wallilobo (leeward), Nov. 8 th; seashore. From passages at the root of a tree. Formicary could not be found. The ants are moderately active, and not very pugnacious.

(49 b). Fitz-Hugh Estate (leeward), near sea-level. Dec. 12 th. A large community, with extensive passages about an old arrowroot-machine; the passages partly under stones, or by the sides of posts which supported the machine; partly in the ground near the surface. In places there were galleries, covered with a substance apparently formed of wood-fibre and earth. I could find no larvae, and no males nor females, though I dug deep. Probably this was a branch of the main nest, which may have been some distance away. The workers major were numerous, probably one-fourth of the whole. The place was quite near the seashore.

(49 c). Petit Bordelle Estate; open land near the sea. Dec. 15 th. A very large community (eight or ten thousand, I should think), under turf on a rock; shore of a stream. The chambers were large, some of them four inches long and wide, but not high; and they were partly built up with walls of wood-fibre or some similar substance. The passages were numerous, and the whole formicarium occupied a space of about two square feet. The workers major are not numerous; about as one to twenty compared with the workers minor. Only one female could be found. The larvas were numerous. This ant walls in a large proportion of its works, both pas-. sages and chambers, with ' the wood-fibre substance mentioned above. It does not tunnel more than an inch or two below the surface of the ground, so far as I can discover.

(44 d). Same locality and date as No. 49 c, but another nest; under a stone. Most of the space under the stone was occupied by a large chamber, about 6 x 4 in., but not high, around the outside of the stone; next the ground were other chambers, formed of the wood-fibre substance. Apparently this was only a part of the nest, with. ' branches under other stones. Only one female found.

The species is common at Petit Bordelle, but I have not been able to find males.