Pheidole macromischoides, Wilson, E. O., 2003

Wilson, E. O., 2003, Pheidole in the New World. A dominant, hyperdiverse ant genus., Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press : 718

Pheidole macromischoides new species

Types Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard.

etymology L macromischoides , like Leptothorax (= Macromischa ).

Diagnosis Major: unknown.

Minor: medium-sized brown member of the tristis group with long, straight, needle-like propodeal spines; low postpetiolar node, promesonotum smoothly rounded in profde; humerus with low subangle in dorsal-oblique view; bell-shaped postpetiole; broken transverse carinulae covering pronotal dorsum; and dorsa of head and mesosoma foveolate and opaque.

Similar to the minor workers of alayoi , bakeri , cubaensis , and naylae of Cuba and androsana of the Bahamas, differing in many details of body form, sculpturing, and pilosity, as illustrated, and color.

measurements (mm) Holotype minor: HW 0.62, HL 0.68, SL 0.76, EL 0.12, PW 0.44.

Color Minor: concolorous medium brown, with appendages a shade lighter.

Range Known only from the type locality.

Biology Foraging during the day on a limestone block about 2 meters high at side of the road 15 meters from a cliff of a magote, one of the limestone outcroppings at Los Acostas (this one was behind the "new" Rancho de San Vicente, west of the road, as of 1953). The workers looked and moved like the distinctive Leptothorax workers of species formerly placed in the synonymous Macromischa , which were abundant on and around the mogotes (E. O. Wilson).

Figure Holotype, minor. (Major unknown.) CUBA: Los Acostas, Pinar del Rio (E. O. Wilson). Scale bar = 1 mm.